Scotland ‘must ban automatic life terms for murder’

Penal system too harsh and should copy Norway’s example, claims justice expert

SCOTLAND should abolish automatic life sentences for murderers, according to a leading international justice expert.

Professor Dirk Van Zyl Smit said the country, which has twice as many “lifers” as France, had a get-tough penal system that was increasingly out of kilter with the rest of Europe.

The South African insists “not all murderers are equally dangerous” and urged Scotland to follow the example of places such as Norway, where far-right terrorist Anders Breivik was given a maximum sentence of 21 years for killing 77 people.

Mr Van Zyl Smit said Scotland is now proportionately sentencing more people to life than any other European country, including England and Wales.

In absolute terms, Scotland has about 1,000 life prisoners and England about 5,500. By comparison, Russia has 1,800 prisoners serving life, whereas France has 500.

Countries such as Russia and France sentence only the most serious killers to life, such as terrorists or child sex murderers. Germany gives life to all murderers, but has a very narrow definition of the crime of murder.

Other nations such as Uruguay and Norway have abolished life sentences altogether, but can keep someone locked up on public safety grounds.

The Scottish Government in recent years has been accused of adopting “soft-touch” justice policies by rightwing opponents and commentators, but figures show Scotland has one of the highest incarceration rates in western Europe.

Mr Van Zyl Smit said: “Scottish people often have an idea of the criminal justice system as not being as harsh as elsewhere. At the top end that is not true.

“The UK has the highest rate of life sentencing in Europe and Scotland sentences more prisoners to life, proportionately, than England.

“The UK and Turkey together have more lifers than the rest of Europe put together, including Russia.

“There is a hard question about what you do with your worst offenders.

“The main concern is that numbers are burgeoning here, while some countries do not have life sentences at all.”

One of the reasons life sentences are controversial in Scotland and the UK is because they do not usually mean a prisoner remains in prison for the rest of their life.

Scottish judges must sentence for life but they also add a minimum tariff that a convicted killer must serve. Analysis shows these tariffs have been creeping up, with Mr Van Zyl Smit suggesting an increasing number of lifers behind bars was “storing up” problems for the future.

The longest so far was 37 years. All released lifers, however, are out on licence for the rest of their life regardless of the length of their sentence.

Some right-wingers, including the Scottish Conservatives, have called for life to mean whole life sentences.

Mr Van Zyl Smit said such policies were “arguably illegal” in terms of European human rights law.

He added: “More than 30 countries have neither the death sentence