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Police Protest at Plan to Downgrade Murder |
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“Chief police officers have attacked Government plans to end mandatory life sentences for murder,” the Daily Mail reported on 17 June 2006. “They fear some of the country’s most dangerous criminals would get softer sentences if ministers introduce a US-style system where killings are graded according to their seriousness.”
Commenting on the Law Commission’s report on the reform of the homicide law, the Medical Ethics Alliance said (20 December 2005):
“By making so called ‘mercy killings’ a lesser offence, a serious injustice could be done to those who are terminally ill, severely disabled or incompetent. The recommendations in the report that would open the way to an enhanced defence of provocation or ‘diminished responsibility’ could open the way to non custodial sentences being routine if the victim was ill, even if nowhere near death.”
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