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i Editor's Letter: Life sentences get a new ruling

 

Oliver Duff
Wednesday 19 February 2014 01:01 GMT
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Faced by Jeremy Bamber, Ian Brady, Rosemary West, Dale Cregan, Mark Bridger, Michael Adebolajo, mercy falters. Our cover story, the ruling by Court of Appeal judges that “whole-life” prison sentences are permissible in England and Wales, is a victory for the Conservatives. Exasperated by European courts’ insistence that saying “life means life” was inhumane, David Cameron had even considered American-style 100-year sentences for murderers.

Yet this news – merry enough for a Cabinet minister, you might think – will have been welcomed with clenched teeth by the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling, who will now have to consider the worst murderers’ applications for release on licence in exceptional circumstances. His decisions will be subject to the courts’ scrutiny – caught between the law and a retributive public.

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Twitter: @olyduff

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