MURDER could be graded into categories ranging from the most depraved to mercy killings as part of a full review of the law demanded today by government advisers.

The mandatory life sentence imposed for murder could also be replaced by shorter jail terms linked to the seriousness of the murder.

The call for the first review of murder and the mandatory life sentence for more than half a century is made in a report that describes the present position as a mess.

The Law Commission, the Government’s law reform adviser, says that a review is necessary because of the “breadth and depth of discontent” with the present law. It said that many people believed that the mandatory life sentence for murder was indefensible and should cease.

A Law Commission spokesman said: “A logical system would identify the most serious forms of killing and call them murder, but it might also attempt to identify other forms and grade them for sentencing. The information we have had from consultees indicates widespread dissatisfaction with the law from judges downwards, who feel their work is being made difficult by the current law.”

The report points out that a mandatory life sentence in a mercy killing case can be avoided only by a “benign conspiracy” between psychiatrist, defence, prosecution and the court to say that the accused was suffering from diminished responsibility.

The call to the Government to instigate a review of murder was made in a report outlining proposed reforms to the defence of “provocation” in murder cases. The recommendations would make it more available to victims of domestic violence who kill their partner in self-defence.

The report also proposes tightening the law so that the provocation defence could not be used where someone has killed for revenge: for example, a jealous husband who murders an unfaithful wife.

Judge Alan Wilkie, a law commissioner, said that he would be asking David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, to allow the commission to review the murder laws. It would be the first wholesale re-examination of the subject since the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment from 1949 to 1953, which led to the Homicide Act in 1957.

The report said that it was incorrect to put all types of murder into a single category.

A serial killer such as Rose West or the Yorkshire Ripper is treated the same as a mercy killer or a person who stabs someone in a fight.

In particular, the law dealing with provocation was now “effectively ignored and scarcely anyone has a good word for it”, the report added.

Many people who were asked to comment on the Law Commission’s inquiry into provocation responded that there was a need to review the murder laws as a whole.

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