SCORES of murderers will not receive mandatory life jail terms under radical reforms of the law of murder outlined yesterday.
But many more killers will be convicted of murder rather than the lesser charge of manslaughter under the first overhaul of murder for 50 years.
The categories of murder and manslaughter will be revamped into a new framework of “first” and “second” degree murder under proposals from the Law Commission, the Government’s law reform body.
There will also be a tighter definition of manslaughter, with many killers who would now be convicted of that crime — such as jealous spouses killing in anger — being charged with “second-degree” murder.
Government ministers want reform, but they are hesitant about degrees of murder. Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor, ruled out categories last week, saying that he favoured reshaping the boundaries between murder and manslaughter.
The present law on murder has been condemned as a “mess” and lacking “clarity and coherence” and “seriously flawed”, the Law Commission said. It covers the contract killer who commits a premeditated killing for gain and the person who in an argument suddenly picks up a knife and inflicts a wound that was not intended to be fatal but proves so.
The commission proposes that the test for “first-degree” murder will be “intention to kill”, and prosecutors and then juries will have to decide whether this intention is present. Only this category will attract the mandatory life sentence. At present murder does not have to involve a deliberate killing or intention to kill.
The second tier would include killings through “reckless indifference” to causing death, intention to do serious harm and cases where the killers claim that they were provoked, suffering diminished responsibility or under duress.
There would also be a third tier of manslaughter for killing by gross negligence or committing a criminal act with the intention to cause some harm or with awareness that the act may cause harm.
Sir Roger Toulson, the chairman of the Law Commission, said: “The foundation on which our proposed framework rests is that the most serious offence within the framework, and the only one that should attract the mandatory life sentence, should be confined to cases where the offender intended to kill.”
He added: “You could think of this as proposals for jury empowerment in murder cases, giving them a greater degree of decision-making power then they currently have. Also for the prosecution as well.”
Crucially, killers who intend to cause their victims “serious harm” but not to kill will be treated as second-degree murderers and will no longer face mandatory life sentences.
But Sir Roger insisted that this did not necessarily mean that their sentences would not be life sentences, or that they would be shorter than now. He said: “If somebody does not intend to kill, they will not get an automatic life sentence. But they may get a life sentence.”
The aim of the proposals, which create a “ladder of offences” to reflect degrees of culpability, is to provide greater transparency and match crimes more closely to sentences.
There were 361 convictions for murder in 2003-04 and 265 for manslaughter, according to the latest statistics. Under the proposed reforms, at least half of the murder convictions and a similar number of those for manslaughter could become second-degree murder cases.
Jeremy Horder, the Law Commissioner who is heading the project, said: “The law is not what the public thinks it is. It is confusing and unfair, and the judiciary have to adapt it to meet the needs of the 21st century on a case-by-case basis.”
The proposals have been harshly criticised by victims’ groups because they open the door to an end to mandatory life sentences for murderers.
The reforms are open for public debate; a final set of recommendations will go from the commission to the Home Office next autumn.
Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, gave his backing to the proposed “degrees of murder”. He told the breakfast show on LBC radio yesterday: “There is something here about making sure that the deeply premeditated, hideously cruel murder of children, or murder and terrorism, or whatever, is at one end of the sentencing scale which, again, is open and transparent, and a mercy killing is at another.”
PROPOSALS CASE REVIEW
Murder to second-degree murder
Damien Hanson, the killer of the financier John Monckton, might be convicted of second-degree murder under the proposals because of difficulty of proving intention to kill.
His accomplice, Elliot White, convicted of manslaughter, would probably be convicted of second-degree murder
Murder to second-degree murder
The cases of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, the youths convicted of the murder of James Bulger, could become second-degree murder under the reforms, because of the need to prove intention to kill
Manslaughter to murder
Two striking miners who killed David Wilkie by throwing a concrete block through his car windscreen in 1984, Dean Hancock and Russell Shankland, were found guilty of murder, later reduced to manslaughter. Under the reforms, the killing would be second-degree murder
Manslaughter to second-degree murder
Emma Humphreys stabbed Trevor Armitage to death and was jailed for life for murder in 1985. After ten years in jail her conviction was reduced to manslaughter on the ground of long-term provocation. Under the reforms, this case is likely to be second-degree murder
Manslaughter to murder
Andrew Wragg, who smothered his terminally ill son with a pillow and was convicted of manslaughter, could be found guilty of second-degree murder
NEW DEGREES
First degree
Murder with an intention to kill
Second degree
With an intention to do serious harm
or intention to kill but with diminished responsibility
or under duress
or reckless indifference to the risk of death
Manslaughter A killing involving gross negligence regarding the risk of death
or by committing a criminal act intending to cause harm, or being reckless about causing harm
