A Matter of Judgment
SK—R. A. Cline's statement last week that 'if a Queen's Bench judge imposes a sentence of fourteen or even twenty-four years, no one has any right to curtail the period' is wrong, if he meant legal and not moral right. Besides the remission of up to one- third of a term of imprisonment, any Home Secre- tary, having consulted the Lord Chief Justice and the trial judge, has a prerogative power to abbreviate a definitive sentence.
[R. A. Cline writes: 'The one-third remission is earned as of right by a prisoner who has fulfilled certain conditions of behaviour during his im- prisonment. The prerogative of mercy is exercised on compaSsionate and other related grounds. Neither of these was relevant to the subject of my article, namely the right to alter a judge's sentence where a prisoner has become fit for re-integration to society.' —Editor, Spectator.]
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