Legal News
Murderers Can Remain In Jail for Life, EU Court Judges Rule (20 January 2012)
Date: 20/01/2012
The UK's most dangerous criminals are able to remain in jail for life, EU Court of Human Rights judges have ruled. Murderers Peter Moore, Jeremy Bamber and Douglas Vinter had requested that the court rule on entire life sentences, claiming that condemning them to a life in prison amounted to treatment that they described as being “inhuman or degrading”. The trio argued that all sentences for inmates should be subject to regular reviews.
Mr. Bamber received a jail sentence for shooting five family members dead in 1986. Mr. Bamber has maintained that he did not kill his relatives, claiming that the crime was committed by his schizophrenic sister. Mr. Moore was convicted of the murder of four men for his own sexual gratification, while Mr. Vinter killed his wife and his colleague. The trio's solicitors had argued that a jail term under which an offender's rehabilitation was unable to lead to a review of their release effectively breached the European Convention on Human Rights. The men failed to win their appeal, with court judges deciding that whole life tariffs failed to be “grossly disproportionate”.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice claimed that the Government strongly welcomed the ruling. He added that the Ministry of Justice had argued that there were certain inmates whose crimes were so appalling that they should fail to be eligible for parole.
The criminal law department at Duncan Lewis prides itself on offering a specialist criminal defence service to their clients. The team of experienced criminal law solicitors possess many years’ experience of representing clients in cases of serious crimes and can support clients wishing to appeal their convictions.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16591164