Judge: We need to change murder law

Parliament should overhaul the murder laws to improve public faith in the way killers are dealt with, the country's top judge said today.

To address the problem, he said a "careful reform" of the murder law should be carried out with MPs given a free vote so that they could express their views freely.

Lord Judge's comments at the Royal Courts of Justice today follow a call by the independent Homicide Advisory Review Group for the mandatory life sentence for murder to be scrapped.

The group, whose members include former judges, lawyers and prison governors, claimed the compulsory life term was "outdated" and "unjust" and that judges should be given the power to determine punishment on a case-by-case basis.

Lord Judge said, however, that offenders were already given varying "tariffs" setting out the minimum time that each must serve and that the main problem was that the law was too complicated.
He cited recent legislation barring those accused of killing from using "provocation on the grounds of sexual infidelity" as a defence as a major problem that he was "grappling with". The answer, he said, would be to review the murder law to achieve legislation that was both in step with public opinion and simpler to implement and understand.