Should life mean life? Legal experts debate whole-life sentences
Are some crimes so repugnant that the perpetrator should spend the rest of their life in prison, without the possibility of review?
Professor Stephen Shute
This question will be tackled by top legal experts from the University of Sussex and leading prison-reform campaigners in a lively panel discussion at Brighton Dome next week (Tuesday 4 November).
Unreviewable whole-life prison sentences were earlier this year judged to be unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights – a decision that has moved the UK government to draw up plans to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if the UK is not given the right to veto the court’s rulings.
The European Court of Human Rights would become an 'advisory body' to the UK government under a draft ‘British Rights’ bill to be published before Christmas, the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling announced last month.
Debating the implications are panelists:
- Professor Stephen Shute, an expert in criminal law and criminal justice at the University of Sussex who has acted as an advisor to government on various criminal justice issues. His work on unduly lenient sentences prompted the Lord Chief Justice, in January 2000, to revise the practice directions that govern the allocation of cases in the Crown Court.
- Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, campaigns for fewer people in prison, more community sentencing, fewer children in prison by raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility, and change within prisons.
- Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, which makes the case for prison reform to government and political parties. The Trust believes that prison should be reserved for those whose offending is so serious that they cannot serve their sentence in the community.
The discussion will be co-ordinated by Professor Stuart Harrop, a law professor at the University of Sussex, who organised the event.
Audience members will be invited to register their views using an electronic voting system and to join in with questions and opinions of their own.
The Sussex Salon debate – ‘Whole life sentences – should life mean life?’ – takes place on Tuesday 4 November 2014 at 7.30pm in Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, New Road, Brighton.
You can book tickets online or by calling Brighton Dome ticket office on 01273 709709.The ticket price (£7/£5 concession) includes the cost of one drink.
The aim of the Sussex Salon series – named after the 18th-century practice of debating intellectual matters in public places – is to highlight University research that engages with contemporary issues in a way that will appeal to a wider audience. The debates are organised by the School of Law, Politics and Sociology.