Whole life term not ECHR-incompatible, Strasbourg court rules
A triple murderer has lost a case before the European Court of Human Rights that his whole life term, without prospect of release unless in exceptional circumstances, was a breach of his human rights.
The case was brought by Arthur Hutchinson, currently serving his sentence in Durham Prison for the murder in 1984 of three members of the same family, after breaking into their home.
Hutchinson argued that his case was indistinguishable from the 2013 Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Vinter v United Kingdom, which found that the domestic law concerning the Justice Secretary’s power to release a person subject to a whole life order was unclear, and that as there was currently no review mechanism at any stage in the sentence, there was a violation of article 3 of the Convention, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment.
However, the Court of Appeal had since clarified in R v Newell that whole life orders were open to review under national law and therefore compatible with article 3 of the Convention. The ECtHR found that the Court of Appeal had expressly responded to the ECtHR’s concerns, in particular underlining that if a whole life prisoner could establish that “exceptional circumstances” had arisen subsequent to the imposition of the sentence, the Justice Secretary had to consider – in a manner compatible with article 3 – whether such circumstances justified release. A decision by the Justice Secretary would have to be reasoned by reference to the circumstances of each case and would be subject to judicial review.
By six votes to one, a chamber of the ECtHR considered that domestic law thus provided a whole life prisoner hope and the possibility of release in the event of circumstances in which the punishment was no longer justified. The ECtHR underlined that it was primarily for the national courts to resolve problems of interpretation of domestic law. Having regard to the fact that the national court had specifically addressed the ECtHR’s doubts and had set out a clear statement of the legal position, the ECtHR was satisfied that the Justice Secretary’s power to release a whole life prisoner was sufficient to comply with article 3.