Report on Mandatory Sentences - Law Reform Commission

compromise which failed to achieve the support of the senior judiciary and did little to diminish anxieties
about the possibility of mistake in capital cases. 30
2.10 In 1964, Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans, 31 who were hanged for the murder of
John West during a robbery, became the last people to suffer the death penalty before abolition in 1965. 32
2.11 In 1965, Sydney Silverman introduced the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Bill as a private
member’s Bill. 33 The Bill completed its passage through Committee Stage in the House of Commons with
one amendment that limited its period of operation to five years, unless Parliament by affirmative
resolution of both Houses determined otherwise. 34 At Committee Stage in the House of Lords, Lord
Parker proposed an amendment to the Bill that would replace the mandatory life sentence with a
discretionary life sentence. 35 While this proposal received some support, it was ultimately defeated. Lord
Parker proposed a further amendment that would enable the court to recommend a minimum period
which should elapse before the Secretary of State ordered the release of the prisoner on licence. 36 This
proposal met with greater success.
2.12 The Bill was enacted as the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965. Section 1(1) provided
that persons convicted of murder who were aged 18 years or more at the time of the offence would
receive an automatic life sentence whereas persons aged less than 18 years would continue to be
detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. Section 1(2) provided that the court could, in imposing a life
sentence for murder, recommend a minimum period which should elapse before the Secretary of State
ordered the release of the offender on licence. In 1969, Parliament, by affirmative resolution of both
Houses, determined that the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 should remain in force without
time limit. 37
2.13 While the mandatory life sentence remains the penalty for murder in England and Wales, the
enactment of the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 did not mark the end of the debate. Over
time, public dissatisfaction with the life sentence grew as it came to be understood that those who
received a life sentence would, in fact, serve a much shorter period in prison, specifically, in the region of
9 years. 38 This led to a reference to the Criminal Law Revision Committee in England and Wales to
review the penalty for homicide. 39 In its 1973 <strong>Report</strong>, 40 the Committee recommended the retention of the
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Shute “Punishing Murders: Release Procedures and the ‘Tariff’, 1953-2004” [2004] Crim LR 873 at 875; Smith
“The Penalty for Murder” (1988) 19 Cambrian Law Review 5 at 7; and Morris Crime and Criminal Justice since
1945 (Blackwell, 1989) at 85.
It would appear that Gwynne Owen Evans’s real name was John Robson Walby. See: “Stable murder rate
sways MPs to permanently end the death penalty” Lincolnshire Echo 12 December 2006.
Edge “The Last Hangings” Daily and Sunday Express 5 August 2011; “Enough rope: Tomorrow it will be 25
years since the last hanging in Britain...” The Guardian 12 August 1989; and “Stable murder rate sways MPs
to permanently end the death penalty” Lincolnshire Echo 12 December 2006.
Dawtry “The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain” (1966) 6 Brit J Criminology 183; and Blom-Cooper “The
Penalty for Murder: A Myth Exploded” [1996] Crim LR 707 at 710.
Dawtry “The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain” (1966) 6 Brit J Criminology 183 at 184.
Dawtry “The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain” (1966) 6 Brit J Criminology 183 at 184-185; and Smith
“The Penalty for Murder” (1988) 19 Cambrian Law Review 5 at 9.
Dawtry “The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain” (1966) 6 Brit J Criminology 183 at 185.
Shute “Punishing Murders: Release Procedures and the ‘Tariff’, 1953-2004” [2004] Crim LR 873 at 875; and
Smith “The Penalty for Murder” (1988) 19 Cambrian Law Review 5 at 8. See: section 4 of the Murder
(Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965.
Smith “The Penalty for Murder” (1988) 19 Cambrian Law Review 5 at 8.
This also led to the establishment of the Emslie Committee in Scotland.
<strong>Report</strong> on the Penalty for Murder (Criminal Law Revision Committee, 1973). The Emslie Committee had
reported a year earlier (see: <strong>Report</strong> on the Penalties for Murder (Lord Emslie Committee, 1972)).
46