Shortly after the trial, and after the judge had recommended a minimum sentence of eight years,
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer], the
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer], ordered that the two boys should serve a minimum of ten years,
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] which would have made them eligible for release in February 2003 at the age of 20.
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] |
|
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] |
After the trial, the judge released the names and these photographs of Venables (left) and Thompson (right) |
The editors of
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] newspaper handed a petition bearing nearly 280,000 signatures to
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] [Links nur für registrierte Nutzer], in a bid to increase the time spent by both boys in custody.
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] This campaign was successful, and in
July 1994 Howard announced that the boys would be kept in custody for a minimum of fifteen years,[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer][Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] meaning that they would not be considered for release until February 2008, by which time they would be 25 years of age.
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer]
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] criticised Howard's intervention, describing the increased tariff as "institutionalised vengeance ... [by] a politician playing to the gallery".
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] The increased minimum term was overturned in 1997 by the
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer], who ruled that it was "unlawful" for the Home Secretary to decide on minimum sentences for young offenders.
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] The
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] and
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer] have since ruled that, though the parliament may set minimum and maximum terms for individual categories of crime, it is the responsibility of the trial judge, with the benefit of all the evidence and argument from both prosecution and defence counsel, to determine the minimum term in individual criminal cases.
[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer]