Is Whole-Life Imprisonment About to Become Illegal?

In a recent decision made by the Strasbourg European court it is now considered that a whole-life imprisonment is against a persons human rights. According to the Strasbourg a whole-life imprisonment will go against Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights and a whole-life imprisonment goes against the rights of a person by treating them inhuman.

Since the original statement was given by the Strasbourg board it has caused a dramatic media hype with many questioning if a person who has been imprisoned for life have the right to human rights at this level.

Within the statement given the Strasbourg court went on to say, “For a life sentence to remain compatible with article 3 there had to be both a possibility of release and for reviews to take place.”

While such views expressed by the Strasbourg court have attracted many mixed opinions the statement will not change how the law system currently works across England and Wales. The UK government, in particular, are very likely to fight against such views.

This statement comes after three notorious murderers,  Jeremy Bamber, Peter Moore and Douglas Vinter all stated that they believed a whole-life imprisonment was against their human rights.  At the present time, a person is able to be imprisoned for a whole-life sentence without review or the possibility of being released; if the law was to follow the statement from Strasbourg this would no longer be a illegal for of imprisonment. However, many imprisoned criminals still have the ability for their case to be reviewed by the courts and a release may be ordered in the present system.

If changed the law could then state that a person can only be imprisoned for a whole-life sentence if their case is reviewed at certain periods and if they have the possibility of a release at the courts discretion.

Ashton Hudson, Online Marketing Executive

ahudson@astonbond.co.uk