Set minimum terms for murder, urges think-tank
The Law Reform Commission (LRC) has also called for a review of existing legislation which sets mandatory minimum sentences for certain drugs offences, over doubts about its ability to reduce the level of crime and deter potential offenders.
In a consultation paper to be published today, the LRC said judges in the Republic, unlike their counterparts in the North, currently have no discretion in relation to fixing sentences for people convicted of murder.
If the proposals are acted on by the Government, they will lead to one of the most fundamental reforms of mandatory sentencing in Irish legal history.
Under the existing sentencing regime, convicted murderers face an indefinite period in jail, although the current average is about 17 years.
The amount of time they actually serve is ultimately decided by the minister for justice, usually based on the recommendations of the parole board.
In the North, a judge recently recommended that former dentist Colin Howell should serve a 21-year minimum term after being given a life sentence for a double murder.
The LRC said there were questions over whether specific aspects of existing mandatory life sentences for murder in the Republic were compatible with rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.
It claimed it was difficult to see how the absence of any input from the sentencing court on a convicted murderer’s release date of was fully compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The LRC has also called for a review of legislation which sets mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offences, on the basis it has led to a bulge in the prison population without having any major effect on the activities of leading drug barons.
The parole board has also recently described the growing number of prisoners being given sentences of five to 10 years as “a worrying trend”.
The LRC says it is arguable that the Criminal Justice Act 1999 — which compels judges to impose a minimum 10-year term for people convicted of certain drug offences — has not achieved its stated objective of reducing offences.
It also recommends such mandatory minimum sentences should not be extended to any other type of offence. The report said the 1999 legislation had resulted in “a discriminatory system of sentencing where all cases are treated alike regardless of differences in the individual circumstances of the offenders”.
The LRC said the illegal drugs industry had adapted to the sentencing regime by using “expendable couriers” to hold and transport drugs. As a consequence, low-level offenders were caught rather than those at the top of the industry. The LRC said it had also led to a high level of guilty pleas in order to avoid the mandatory minimum sentence.
The report recommends the proposed Judicial Council should be empowered to develop sentencing guidelines based on decisions of the Court of Criminal Appeal and the Irish sentencing information system database operated by the Court Service.
