Criminal Law Essay Question

Hi, I'm a first year studying law and have been given by first criminal law essay. This is the question:

The mandatory life sentence for murder should be abolished. This would have the desirable effect of giving judges discretion in sentencing whilst eliminating the need for the complex and confusing defences of provocation and diminished responsibilty. Critically discuss.

First of all, im not sure i entirely understand the question, how would abolishing the mandatory life sentence for murder enable judges to eliminate defences such as provocation and diminished reponsibility?

Any ideas of how I should tackle this question would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou.

Reply 1

dan_black

the reference of prov and dim resp. is with regards to these defences reducing the offence to manslaughter possibly in order to avoid the mandatory life sentence. Good Luck

Reply 2

Daniel Hoadley

Not sure if you're still writing your essay but I have a couple of suggestions. Mandatory life sentences for a conviction of murder have been criticised by some because the punishment may, in some very limited instances, be too much.

An example might be where the defendant commited the 'murder' out of necessity, which is of course not recognised as a defence. The decisions in R v. Jarvis and In Re A(Conjoined Twins: Surgical Separation) might give you some inspiration and provide some merit for the position contained in your essay question.