What is Life?
There has been much activity in the Lords in the last few days since the Lord Chief Justice's amendment on the No Hanging Bill (discussed by R. A. •Cline last week) was carried by a two-yote margin. This was the amendment which abolished life.imprisonment as the automatic sentence for murder conviction and gave the trial judge power to fix any term he thought fit ranging from pro- bation to any number of years' imprisonment. It was clearly gding to lead.to a clash with the Com- mons; the amendment constituted a serious in- road on the principle that the prisoner's post-trial behaviour should be under continuous review by the Home Office so that if he ever turned out to be fit for freedom, the Home Secretary could grant it to him on licence. This he can only do to a 'lifer.' However, a compromise was reached to avoid the clash and on Thursday Lord Parker put an amendment acceptable to the judiciary and the Home Office which preserves life im- prisonment as the only sentence for murder, sub- ject as now to the Home Secretary's power to re- lease the prisoner on licence, but imposing on the Minister the duty to have regard to any minimum period of imprisonment which the trial judge may declare the prisoner ought to serve. This is a sensible approach which could ultimately be adapted to other crimes as serious as murder.
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