BRITAIN’S most senior judge set out the first formal system of plea bargaining in England yesterday under which killers who plead guilty may win discounts of one third off their jail terms.
Murderers who admit their crime early in an investigation could receive a minimum sentence of ten years. In a few cases, where there are strong mitigating circumstances, such as a mercy-killing, the final sentence after discount could be much less.
Yesterday, Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, set discounts from the standard tariffs for murder on a sliding scale, according to how far an investigation had proceeded.Under the first guidelines from the independent Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC), murderers and other offenders who admit their crimes immediately, saving police time and sparing witnesses a court ordeal, would see a third off the “punitive” element of their sentence.
In the case of murderers, it would still then be up to the Parole Board to decide if they were safe to be released into the community.
Lord Woolf maintained that the guidelines, the first of their kind, did not amount to “going soft on crime”.
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He said: “The sentence (for murder) remains life imprisonment.” But a discount, he added, would mean that an offender would “come up for parole earlier”.
The guidelines, from which judges must give reasons for departing, will apply across all offences and help to promote confidence in the justice system, Lord Woolf said.
The drafts also advise judges on a range of new sentences coming into force next year, including new schemes designed to boost public confidence in community sentences. Community regimes will be much harsher and will be strictly supervised.
Offenders released from jail will have to comply with rigorous requirements, monitored by the Probation Service.
The guidelines look at new sentences such as intermittent custody, or “weekend jail”, and new types of suspended sentence.
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Lord Woolf stressed that the draft guidelines had been prepared with the involvement of Victim Support and other council members including Ken Macdonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Peter Neyroud, the Thames Valley Chief Constable, and Anthony Edwards, a defence barrister.
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the probation union Napo, said: “For the guidelines to work there has to be a huge investment in probation, which is not forthcoming.”
Paul Cavadino, chief executive of Nacro, the crime reduction charity, welcomed the guidelines which, he said, would mean fewer victims being put through the ordeal of court and which would reduce the chances of offenders getting off. But the Home Secretary last night moved swiftly to distance himself from any notion of widespread sentence discounts.
David Blunkett insisted that most murderers should continue to serve 15 years or more and for “heinous” murders, life would mean life.
Parliament had made that clear in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which “toughened up previous legislation”.
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Hinting that tensions still simmer between judges and the executive over sentencing, Mr Blunkett added that the guidelines had yet to go before the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, condemned the plans and accused Lord Woolf of “losing the plot”. He said that lenient sentencing led to an increase in crime.
“At a time when murder is at its highest level since the Second World War, surely we should be sending out a strong and deterrent message,” Mr Brennan said.