en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imprisonment
Life imprisonment (also known as a life sentence, lifelong incarceration or life incarceration) is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life. Examples of crimes for which a person could receive this sentence include murder, high treason, severe or violent cases of drug dealing or human trafficking, or aggravated cases of burglary or robbery resulting in death or grievous bodily harm.
This sentence does not exist in all countries. Portugal was the first country in the world to abolish life imprisonment by the Prison reforms of Sampaio e Melo, in 1884. However, where life imprisonment is a possible sentence, there may also be formal mechanisms to request parole after a certain period of imprisonment. This means that a convict could be entitled to spend the rest of the sentence (that is, until he or she dies) outside of prison. Early release is usually conditional depending on past and future conduct, possibly with certain restrictions or obligations. In contrast, in jurisdictions without life imprisonment, a convict who has served the given prison sentence is free upon release.
The length of time and the modalities surrounding parole vary greatly for each jurisdiction. In some places convicts are entitled to apply for parole relatively early, in others only after several decades. However, the time of legally being entitled to apply for parole does not often tell anything about the actual date of being granted parole. Article 110 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court stipulates that for the gravest forms of crimes (e.g., war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide), a prisoner ought to serve two thirds of a fixed sentence, or 30 years in the case of life imprisonment. The highest determined prison sentence that can be imposed in the ICC is 40 years in prison, other than life imprisonment. After this period, the court shall then review the sentence to determine whether it should be reduced.
Unlike other areas of criminal law, sentences handed to minors do not differ from those given to legal adults. A few countries worldwide had allowed for minors to be given lifetime sentences that have no provision for eventual release. Countries that allow life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for juveniles include Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Belize, Brunei, Cuba, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, and the United States. Of these, only the United States currently has minors serving such sentences.[1] As of 2009, Human Rights Watch had calculated that there were 2,589[2][3] youth offenders serving life without parole in the United States.[4]
In 2010, the United States Supreme court ruled that sentencing minors to life without parole for crimes other than first-degree murder violated the 8th Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment, in the case of Graham v. Florida.[5]
World view
Life imprisonment sentence is used
Life imprisonment may only be imposed under certain restrictions
Life imprisonment laws have been abolished
Life imprisonment status unknown, presumed legal
Reform or abolition
In a number of countries, life imprisonment has been effectively abolished. The majority of countries whose governments have abolished both life imprisonment and indefinite imprisonment have been culturally influenced or colonized by Spain or Portugal, and have written such prohibitions into the current constitutional law of these countries. The most populous nation-state to abolish all forms of life imprisonment is Brazil; Article 84, paragraph 19 of the Brazilian Constitution sets a mandatory cap on prison terms at 30 years (ironically, this same article of the constitution allows for capital punishment in cases of treason, defection, mutiny and genocide during wartime).A number of European countries have abolished all forms of indefinite imprisonment, including Serbia, Croatia, Portugal, Spain and Bosnia and Herzegovina; Norway has abolished life imprisonment, but retains other forms of indefinite imprisonment. Only two countries in Asia have abolished all forms of indefinite imprisonment, namely the Philippines and Nepal; the Chinese dependency and former Portuguese colony of of Macau also maintains a mandatory cap on prison sentences, having inherited the law from Portuguese rule. One African country, the Republic of the Congo, is known to have instituted a mandatory cap on prison sentence terms.
In the United States, a 2009 report by the Sentencing Project suggested that life imprisonment without parole should be abolished, a suggestion that was met with opposition from law enforcement officials[6].
No comments:
Post a Comment