Murderers face end to mandatory life sentences

MURDERERS will no longer face automatic life sentences under proposals published in Britain yesterday - changing a law which dates back to the abolition of the death penalty 40 years ago.

The Government's legal advisers suggested creating a new framework of "first degree" and "second degree" murder alongside a revised definition of manslaughter.

There should also be new categories of homicide for specific offences, such as assisting suicide and infanticide, the Law Commission said in provisional proposals.