ECtHR makes landmark ruling on life sentences
Whole-life sentences without prospect of release breach prisoners’ human rights, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
The case was brought by three prisoners, including Jeremy Bamber who was convicted of murdering his family at their Essex farmhouse in 1985.
The court held there had been a breach of Art 3, which protects against inhuman and degrading treatment. Its judgment stated that, “for a life sentence to remain compatible with Art 3 there had to be both a possibility of release and a possibility of review.” However, the Court emphasised that its judgment should not be read as “giving them any prospect of imminent release”.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust said: “Re-establishing the principle of right to review helps to restore balance to a penal system distorted by the 2003 Criminal Justice Act. Re-instating the possibility of review, albeit with little prospect of release, puts a degree of hope into the lives of those very few people serving whole life tariffs.”
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