Law reform - Give sense a chance

THE Law Reform Commission yesterday published a report on murder and involuntary manslaughter and how our courts view these crimes and how they apply suitable sentences.

The commission repeated a recommendation it made more than 10 years ago that the mandatory life sentence for murder should be replaced to take account of variations in moral culpability in different types of murder.

This is an entirely valid recommendation and the mystery is that it remains to be enacted.

Surely we must allow the courts the latitude needed to apply common sense and humanity to their workings.

Without these characteristics our justice system has no prospect of retaining the respect and support it needs to function.