The Act 1958 ( Vic ) And The Sentencing Amendment

The criminal justice system plays a fundamental role in achieving justice, as the system aims to protect all members of the community fairly and equally. However, in the criminal case of R v Loveridge, it is evident that the justice system fails to apply the law to equally balance the needs of the victims and the community. In this case, the offender Kieran Loveridge pleaded guilty to five counts of offences; three charges of common assault, one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one charge of manslaughter by an unlawful and dangerous act, the victim being Thomas Kelly, Loveridge received 4 years’ non-parole for manslaughter, Loveridge’s total effective sentence therefore is 7 years and 2 months with an effective

Currently if a D aged 18 or over is convicted of murder, the judge must pass a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. For offenders aged 10-17 found guilty of murder, the judge must order that they are detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. The fact the sentencing is mandatory and the judge has no discretion leaves a lack of ability to sentence according to blameworthiness, unlike all other offences which have discretion in sentencing; Gotts. This lack of differentiation between blameworthiness is further emphasised by the Government’s sentencing guidelines laid down in the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Under this act in cases of murders of police officers or murders involving firearms D should receive a 30 year sentence. However, in cases like that of Martin (Anthony) such a sentence would appear unjust.

To formulate the law, it was decided that the most valuable approach to reduce violent crimes was through a mandated policy decision requiring identification through past behavior of those who demonstrated clear conduct to participate in violent criminal and whose conduct was not discouraged by the usual concepts of punishment. Reed (2004) stated, “The overall purpose of punishment within the criminal justice system is to prevent the commission of crimes to deter recidivism. For this objective to be successful, punishment must be effective in addressing the problems and solutions for the entire system, not just in individual cases” (p. 502). In reducing crimes, various methods and theories are taken into account. Some of these methods are additional police, additional courts, mandatory sentencing, and increased prosecutorial resources (Reed, 2004). Because the Three Strikes Law varies from state to state, this leads to the many problems it causes in the criminal justice system.

On the 4th April, 2016, the Supreme Court of Queensland began hearing the matter of R v Blyton; Cairns. In this case, the accused, Nikolaus Blyton, was charged with murder over the death of his father, Ron Livingstone, who was killed on a houseboat owned by co-defendant Timothy Cairns in

Capital Punishment was abolished “under Harold Wilson’s Labour government in 1969” (Manton.K, 2011, P.16) in the United Kingdom, but there have been continuing debates concerning the reinstatement of the death penalty in the UK.(BBC NEWS, 2011) reports that the Conservative party MP calls for submission on capital punishment in the UK. The Brigg and Goole MP “is one of a number of Tory backbenchers calling for a commons debate of the return of capital punishment.”(BBC NEWS, 5th August 2011) Currently, Paul Staines, who writes the Guido Fawkes ‘ calls for the death to be brought back for child and police officer murderers,” he carried out a public opinion poll, which recommends that around half the population want capital punishment to be reinstated for murders ‘ this rises to 60% when it comes to child or police officer kills’, furthermore his e-petition on the government website needs ‘100,000 people to support’ it so that there could possibly be a preliminary debate on the issue (BBC NEWS, 4th August 2011). As Mr. Staines statistics poll shows, in 2011 that there is a high percent of the public that requests capital punishment to be reinstated in the UK for serious crimes such as; murder, child murder and police officer kills.

“ONE PUNCH LAW” “One punch” assaults known as “The King Hit” have cost over 90 lives since the year 2000. New South Wales have had the largest number of one punch assaults which is 28, followed by Queensland and Victoria who have recorded 24 cases each. Picture this, imagine a teenage boy who is having fun with his mates, and he gets “King Hit” by a stranger in which had taken his life. You would think that the killer would receive a very harsh prison sentence right? Well that isn’t always the case. One person who was a victim in a situation very similar to this. Thomas Kelly. Thomas Kelly is an 18 year old boy who was “King Hit” in Kings Cross in New South Wales. All it took was one punch to end his life. The attacker received a 4 year

Introduction The mandatory sentence of two years’ imprisonment is unconstitutional because it is “cruel and unusual punishment” which infringes upon the accused’s right not to be subjected to such treatment. Firstly, it is determined that the mandatory minimum sentence in this case is grossly disproportionate to the accused’s circumstances and would be reasonably foreseeable that the provision would have the same overreaching effect on other offenders. Secondly, the provision in question in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is not saved by section 1 of the Charter as it has failed the prescribed Oakes test. The test gives weight to the law’s objective in comparison to the means of achieving it, which in this case, impaired too heavily on the right of the accused.

Classical Perspective and Mandatory Sentencing Act The classical perspective founded by Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham; stated that at people choose to commit crime after they considered the pros and cons that could be associated with a crime, and believed that the pros outweighed the cons (Tonry,2014). The theory relied on deterring criminal acts by assuring that the consequences of crime are absolute, harsh, and quickly administered (Tonry,2014).

This essay will ultimately contend that the Sentencing Amendment (Coward 's Punch Manslaughter and Other Matters) Act 2014 is an ill-founded initiative made by legislators, giving the impression of a powerful Government without truly reducing the violence. Using a close reading of each provision of the legislation in unison with extrinsic materials, this piece will outline the efficacy, necessity and likely impacts of the Act.

Statistical elaboration has shown that decreasing the prison population does not affect the well being of the community. Diminishing overcrowding within our jails should be of great importance for state administrations. Our President Barack Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act into effect in 2010. The method must be two-fold: first,

Murdering someone may not be seen as been a proportionate response. However, recognition of the ongoing nature of domestic violence may result in the offender receiving a light sentence or even a good behaviour bond for their crime. The removal of the provocation defence may in fact disadvantage women who see no other alternative than to defend themselves against abusive partners.

The Sentencing Reform Act is associated with the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, were the U.S. federal statute increased the consistency in the United States federal sentencing. The Sentencing Reform Act created the United States Sentencing Commission. This act allowed the independent commission into the judicial branch of the United States Sentencing Commission. It consists of seven voting members and one nonvoting member. For the sake of the United States Sentencing Commission, there are regulations that establish sentencing policies and practices for the Federal criminal justice system, which ensures a meeting of the purposes of sentencing. Judges are also bestowed the power to determine the legitimacy of convictions. The aspiration of the Sentence Reform Act was to avoid unwarranted sentencing disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar criminal conduct Also to allow the Judicial system to process....

BATH, N.Y. (WENY) -- After more than an hour of impact statements, Thomas Clayton learned his fate. Clayton will spend the rest of his life in prison for hiring Michael Beard to kill his wife Kelley back in 2015. Sentencing began Monday afternoon with

The ‘one punch’ (King hits) would be paramount in their minds because without any doubt, these one punch incidents would be alcohol/drug related. An example of the societal mood and behaviourism is evident throughout the Liquor Amendment Bill 2014 Legislation Debate, when Mr. David Shoebridge exclaims that “This is the bill that expands the regime of mandatory sentencing here in New South Wales. It also puts in place effectively a strict liability offence for these one-punch laws.” It are incidents like these that are not because of one drink, it’s from prolong drinking. These people are very intoxicated, and this amendment is essentially targeting people to prevent getting into this state of mind, and minimise the causation of public disorders.

The modern day legal system has caused a curious discourse regarding the separation of violence and the implementation of the law. Robert Cover proposes that the legal interpretation of the law, coercion, and violence, are not as separate as many might believe. In fact, he argues that they overlap to the point where they become indistinguishable from one another. I will briefly discuss the relationship between law and violence according to Robert Cover to show that he does not believe the two concepts are mutually exclusive. I will then address the idea of capital punishment as both a physical and systemic violence done by the law and will continue by discussing sites of legal and physical violence with the problem of mass incarceration. Legal violence is not a unique form of violence that exists above the law, instead it is merely another form of violence because it still involves the neglect or harm of an another individual.