‘Public sick of soft sentences for murder,’ says senator

A BILL calling for tougher sentences for first degree murder is heading back to the Seanad after attempts to turn it aside.

Senator Marie Louise O’Donnell says the public wants an end to the era of soft sentences, particularly in the area of homicide.

Her Bill, entitled Minimum Custodial Periods Upon Conviction For Murder, came into the upper house in February, but was not completed.

It will now resume first stage on Wednesday afternoon.

‘I am trying to get it to committee stage where it at least can be argued, extended, cut, enlarged, or amended,’ Senator O’Donnell told the Irish Daily Mail yesterday.

‘If a person is charged and convicted of murder in Ireland they will serve the ludicrous term called life imprisonment. It is ludicrous and absurd because it is not life imprisonment — it is instead a minimum seven-year sentence.

‘There is thus every likelihood that murderers get out after somewhere between 13 and 17 years in jail, and some will serve even less,’ she said.

Her Bill would bring minimum tariffs for murder to Ireland, similar to those in operation in England and Wales. The draft legislation provides a mechanism whereby the court can determine the amount of time the convicted will spend in prison before they become eligible for release.

Senator O’Donnell said the Bill would restore judicial discretion in capital cases where there was currently none — because there is a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for murder, even though it effectively only means a seven-year minimum.

The Government, while facilitating the debate, would ‘throw it to the wolves’, Ms O’Donnell predicted, even though her Bill was ‘extremely important’.

She said: ‘It should be permitted to get to Committee stage.

‘I am not a “hang ’em high” merchant — but there is now in Ireland a kind of laissez-faire attitude to crime and punishment. You can literally get away with anything, even murder, and even after scores of convictions.’

‘This Bill is only concerned with first degree murder, nothing else, and would only come into effect upon conviction,’ she said.

The current myriad levels of sentencing causes ‘shock, horror and downright disbelief’ among the general public, she added.