egafd.com

Quite right. Mandatory life sentences can be very unfair when you actually look at the details.

So, if someone is convicted of murder, and admits murder, they should stay in prison for life?

Well said Lizard old chap

'Woe is me' doesn't constitute an argument

You say Ragman:When I worked at the Scrubs, I encountered one particular 'Lifer' who was in his seventies, had no previous criminal record, and after several years of caring for his wife who was dying of some cruel and agonising wasting disease took the decision to end her life by smothering her with a pillow. He maintained that it was what she had asked him to do and to be honest I believed him. The law being as it is, he was guilty of murder and was sentenced to life, the only available sentence under the law. His tariff was only 7 years, the lowest I've encountered, and assuming he lived long enough, I'm pretty sure he would have got out not long after that. He didn't pose any risk to anyone, and could easily have been left to live out his remaining years in the community harmlessly.

Well i don't believe him and obviously the judge did not either and that's why he directed the jury to find him guilty.

Smothering is a horrible way to die, gasping for breathe and not something done to a loved one. Why not an overdose of sleeping pills wher one sleeps but does not wake up?

He was a "domestic" and they don't serve long especially when people like you put in reports that are sympathetic.

I could never do such a callous thing and have never harmed a woman but I do not have any remorse at having killed a gangster who threated to kill me and my family when attacked and wounded in my own home.

If one is the victor in a mortal struggle one should not let the vanquished live nor let him suffer...

Of course people with this attitude would do a long time...right?
Mike Freeman.

Why do you assume that the judge directed the jury to find him guilty ? The fact that he only got a 7 year tariff suggests that the circumstances did indeed suggest a 'mercy killing'. That doesn't make it right, and a Life sentence was the only possible outcome.

I don't know the circumstances surrounding your own case other than what I have read via this thread, but if the facts of the matter are / were as you describe, then I don't for one minute blame you for having no remorse. I think most of us would behave in exactly the same way in that situation.

You (wrongly) assume that I'm motivated by sympathy when I have 'put in reports' about such cases. Sympathy has nothing to do with it. We are asked to comment on behaviour, attitudes, motivation to change, work done to address offending behaviour, apparent or assessed levels of risk whether it be for a move to a lower category jail or to release. You know me no better than I know you, so you'll have to take it on trust that any suggestion that I am motivated by sympathy is laughable.

In a nutshell, I'd have degrees of murder introduced if it was anything to do with me. Not all murderers deserve Life - no two circumstances are the same. By the same token, I'd bring back hanging tomorrow for some of the filth that i deal with on a daily basis, and that would include a lot more offences than murder......

Why not?

Then you think Mike -who started this thread- should still be behind bars?

Ok beat this;

here in Northern Ireland where we are experts in letting murderers walk free to carry on their lives extorting money/performing punishment shootings/becoming politicians or whatever their hobby of choice is, a teenager's sentence is under review for being too lenient after he killed his own grandfather then stole ?80.

His original sentence? 12 months.

I wasn't aware that he was a convicted killer, but if his was a crime with "Malice aforethought" then yes I do.