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A License to Kill?

05/06/2014

The Sensible Sentencing Trust is calling for a 'Life Without Parole' for a murder in breach of a protection order.

The Sensible Sentencing Trust (SST) has today expressed disappointment at yet another lenient sentence being handed down for a murder that was committed with serious aggravating features.

“The murder of Sarwan Lata by her estranged husband, Rajeshwar Singh is yet another tragic case of a murder committed in breach of a protection order and while the offender was on bail,” Spokesperson, Ruth Money said.

“Singh murdered his wife in her own home, a premeditated home invasion of the place she was entitled to feel and be safe,” Money continued. “Not only that, he murdered her in breach of a protection order and bail conditions imposed by the system.”

“Singh ignored those orders and did what he wanted regardless of the law” said Money. “He felt he was entitled to take the life of his estranged wife. This sense of entitlement and ‘ownership’ of another human being is a chilling attitude that must be denounced in the strongest possible terms.”

SST feels that the sentence imposed today fails to condemn Singh’s actions and sends the wrong message to the New Zealand public.

“Even in this case, one of the worst examples of murder given those circumstances, the Judge reduced the minimum non-parole period from 17 years to 16 years,” Money says. “That makes a mockery of the seriousness of this crime.”

SST believes a murder of this nature should qualify for the true life sentence of ‘Life Without Parole’ which the Sentencing Act already allows for.

Spokesperson Ruth Money continued: “We are promoting the concept of a Degrees of Murder regime, in which the worst murders (1st degree) would qualify for a ‘Life Without Parole’ sentence. Currently the ‘worst’ murders attract sentences with minimum non-parole periods of just 17 years.

“In our view, a murder committed in breach of a protection order, bail or parole order, or trespassing order, should qualify as a 1st degree murder and a true life sentence as the offender has ignored the court’s orders to stay away from the victim.”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11268093

ENDS

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