100-year sentences for Jersey courts?

Friday 03 January 2014

Jersey could follow the UK in scrapping whole-life sentences and adopting US-style sentences of up to 100 years for the most serious offences.

Ministers in the UK are considering changing the way that long sentences are handed out to comply with a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

Last July the Court found that a whole life sentence was unlawful unless there was a mechanism for it to be reviewed. Ministers in the UK are expected to set out their plans to respond to the ruling by the end of this year.

Ministers in Jersey are watching developments closely, and say that any change to the law would have to go to the States for debate.

It is understood that two prisoners are currently serving a life sentence handed out by the Royal Court: Paul Greenan, who was given a life sentence in 2005 when aged only 19 for the murder of nurse Tracey Burns in a savage and random attack; and Nicholas Goss, who was sentenced to life with a minimum of 12 years for the murder of his girlfriend in 2005.

Greenan, who was told by the sentencing court that he would serve a minimum of 20 years before being considered for parole, is in prison in the UK.

In 2012 the Royal Court called for separate changes to sentencing laws when it sentenced Damian Rzeszowski to 30 years in prison for the manslaughter of six people, including three young children.

At the time of his sentencing, the Royal Court complained of an omission in the law governing minimum sentences that prevented them setting a fixed minimum term of imprisonment in a discretionary life sentence. Although the Court said that a life sentence would have been appropriate, they were unable to impose one and set a 30-year prison term instead.