Sky News reported that judges at the UK Court of Appeal issued a ruling that life sentences given out to convicted felons are legal and that the court will keep on handing them out for the most heinous of crimes. A decision of the European Court of Human Rights earlier in July declared that whole-life sentences were unlawful.
Court of Appeal, of which the ruling was delivered by Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, said the current sytem of handing out while-life sentences allow for a review and that judges should not shy away with regard to handing them out for the most serious of crimes.
Sky News said that the whole-life sentence system in the UK was challenged by Lee Newell, who was handed out a life sentence in September by a Warwick Crown Court judge for killing child murderer Subhan Anwar during his incarceration. The UK news site said that Newell around that time was already serving a life sentence for a murder conviction in 1988.
As a result of the Court of Appeal ruling, Newell's case was reportedly dropped and judges had increased the jail sentence term if Ian McLoughlin from 40 years to a whole-life sentence. McLoughlin stabbed Graham Buck, 66, whom the latter was thwarting the former to rob a neighbor in Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire, Sky News said. McLoughlin was supposedly enjoying his first day of freedom after serving 21 years in prison.
According to SKy News, there are currently 53 prisoners currently serving whole-life sentences in the UK. Several of them had appealed to ECHR last year in July and were able to win their case as 17 judges deemed that their sentences were degrading and inhuman and that their cases should have been reviewed after 25 years.
On Twitter, Attorney General Dominic Grieve said he welcomed the Court of Appeal decision, which read, "I am pleased CoA (Court of Appeal) has confirmed those who commit the most heinous crimes can be sent to prison for the rest of their lives."
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