NCJ Number
173462
Date Published
1994
Length
4 pages
Annotation
As part of a wider project on homicide offenses in New South Wales, the Judicial Commission conducted a systematic audit of all Supreme Court homicide files for the period between January 1990 and December 1993 to assess the impact of legislative changes in the murder penalty on sentencing decisions in murder cases.
Abstract
The information collected allowed the Judicial Commission to separate Section 19 murder sentences under the Crimes Act of 1900 from Section 19A murder sentences. The Crimes Act prescribed the penalty for murder under Section 19 as death. Section 19 was amended in 1955 when the death penalty was abolished and a mandatory penalty of penal servitude for life was substituted. As part of sentencing reforms initiated with the introduction of the Sentencing Act of 1989, Section 19A was inserted into the Crimes Act and created two types of life murder sentences, those imposed under the old Section 19 and natural life sentences imposed under Section 19A. It was determined most offenders under Section 19A received determinate sentences, typically 18 years penal servitude, with a minimum of 12 years. Under Section 19, most offenders were sentenced to penal servitude for life. There was a marked increase in the number of guilty pleas for murder, and this increase appeared to result from the fact that it was no longer mandatory under Section 19A to impose a sentence of penal servitude for life in the absence of significant mitigating circumstances. Judicial discretion tended to allow a more flexible approach in the sentencing of murderers, one that allowed sentences to reflect both objective facts of offenses and subjective features of offenders. 1 table and 2 figures