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How did a 14 year old get life in prison? Is the judicial system in the UK still calibrated around medieval times?

topynate 13y ago
The simplest answer is that he got it by beating an 11 year old boy to death with a chair leg. The sentence for murder is life imprisonment or "detention at Her Majesty's pleasure", which is much the same thing. Most murderers do eventually get released on life licence.
harrytuttle 13y ago
His sentence was before prison was about rehabilitation. That didn't really kick in until the (late) 90's. Before that it was purely about punishment. I hit someone with a golf club once. In the right circumstances this could have been any one of us.
bowyakka 13y ago
The uk defines the age of criminal responsibility as 10; which is the point at which the individuals actions can be viewed as theirs and theirs alone in the eyes of the law. FWIW the US scale for this slides between 6 and 12 according to wikipedia
njharman 13y ago
Hello captain hyperbole! In medieval times, depending on who you are and who you killed, the punishment would be quick to painful death or nothing at all. Unprovoked, knowingly and intentionally bludgeoning another to death. The only mitigating circumstance reported in the article was he knew and accepted his actions as wrong (immediately calling police on himself). And, as the article mentions, "life" means first chance of parole after 10 years.
- coldtea 13y ago
  >Hello captain hyperbole! 14 year old, life in prison. It IS medieval -- in the metaphorical sense of the word. What you did was a straight-up historical correction on the "medieval" thing, which was totally uncalled for. That said, I wouldn't be so smug if I was in the States either. From what I've read 14 years old (or 15), even get the death penalty in some states.
  - jschneier00 13y ago
    re death penalty age in the USA: Roper v. Simmons [1] in 2005 raised the minimum age to 18. Before that, Stanford v. Kentucky [2] in 1989 set it at 16. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roper_v._Simmons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roper_v._Simmons [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_v._Kentucky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_v._Kentucky
philjohn 13y ago
This was life, with a recommended tarrif of 10 years (from the article) ... so, if the parole board considered him "rehabilitated" he would have been released at that time, albeit on life license, which can be revoked at any time for transgressions.

The simplest answer is that he got it by beating an 11 year old boy to death with a chair leg. The sentence for murder is life imprisonment or "detention at Her Majesty's pleasure", which is much the same thing. Most murderers do eventually get released on life licence.

harrytuttle 13y ago

His sentence was before prison was about rehabilitation. That didn't really kick in until the (late) 90's. Before that it was purely about punishment. I hit someone with a golf club once. In the right circumstances this could have been any one of us.

bowyakka 13y ago

The uk defines the age of criminal responsibility as 10; which is the point at which the individuals actions can be viewed as theirs and theirs alone in the eyes of the law. FWIW the US scale for this slides between 6 and 12 according to wikipedia

njharman 13y ago

Hello captain hyperbole! In medieval times, depending on who you are and who you killed, the punishment would be quick to painful death or nothing at all. Unprovoked, knowingly and intentionally bludgeoning another to death. The only mitigating circumstance reported in the article was he knew and accepted his actions as wrong (immediately calling police on himself). And, as the article mentions, "life" means first chance of parole after 10 years.

coldtea 13y ago
>Hello captain hyperbole! 14 year old, life in prison. It IS medieval -- in the metaphorical sense of the word. What you did was a straight-up historical correction on the "medieval" thing, which was totally uncalled for. That said, I wouldn't be so smug if I was in the States either. From what I've read 14 years old (or 15), even get the death penalty in some states.
- jschneier00 13y ago
  re death penalty age in the USA: Roper v. Simmons [1] in 2005 raised the minimum age to 18. Before that, Stanford v. Kentucky [2] in 1989 set it at 16. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roper_v._Simmons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roper_v._Simmons [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_v._Kentucky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_v._Kentucky

philjohn 13y ago

This was life, with a recommended tarrif of 10 years (from the article) ... so, if the parole board considered him "rehabilitated" he would have been released at that time, albeit on life license, which can be revoked at any time for transgressions.