this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024
262 points (98.5% liked)

News

23259 readers
3399 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Brianna Ghey's killers have been given life sentences for her "brutal, planned and sadistic" murder.

Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe murdered the 16-year-old in a park in Cheshire in February 2023.

Mrs Justice Yip said Jenkinson was motivated by a "deep desire to kill" while Ratcliffe's motivation was in part hostility to Brianna's transgender identity.

She was given 22 years, while Ratcliffe was detained for 20 years.

Both teenagers, who were 15 at the time of the murder and are now 16, could be seen staring ahead towards the judge and showed no visible reaction as they were sentenced.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 49 points 9 months ago (7 children)

Huh? 22 years is life? That's like 1/4 of a life.

Not advocating either way, just confused.

[–] LargoData@lemmy.blahaj.zone 49 points 9 months ago

In the UK we give life sentences on all murders, but they include minimum terms. After the minimum term a person is eligible for parole (which means they could be released but only if a parole board says it's safe to do so). If they are released, they'll be on licence which means they can be returned to prison without trial if it is believed they pose a danger or break other license conditions.

We do have whole life terms but they are reserved for serial killers, acts of terror etc. Anyone on these will never be released (unless on appeal the minimum term is reduced)

[–] andthenthreemore@startrek.website 33 points 9 months ago (1 children)

22 years is the minimum custodial part of the sentence, the rest will be 'on licence' so out of prison under set conditions like reporting in at a police station every week. Breach of any of the conditions or breaking any other laws is basically back to prison do not pass go.

[–] FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So like getting out on parole in the US?

[–] martino@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

That's exactly what it is yeah. 22 years (or 20 for the boy) before they'll be eligible for parole. If they're deemed to still be a risk to the public then they won't be released.

The UK doesn't do life sentences with no eligibility for parole. Every sentence will include eligibility for parole, with the maximum period for eligibility being around 25 years. But obviously there are still plenty of prisoners who don't get parole and spend their entire life behind bars.

[–] LargoData@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There are a handful of Whole Life Tariffs but they are exceptionally rare (e.g. Lucy Letby) and it used to be that it had to be given by the home secretary but that's changed since

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Letby was also in Cheshire. What are they putting in the cheese?

The UK doesn't do life sentences with no eligibility for parole. Every sentence will include eligibility for parole, with the maximum period for eligibility being around 25 years.

That's not entirely true. Full life orders do exist.

That nurse who killed all those babies got one last year, that police officer who kidnapped raped and murdered Sarah Everard has one, Dr Harold Shipman had one, and probably most famously Mira Hindley and Ian Brady had them.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prisoners_with_whole_life_orders

[–] Chainweasel@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago

That's when they're eligible for parole with the life sentence, it's not a guarantee they'll get out then.

[–] ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

They're never free. They can be sent back to jail for the rest of their life for any minor crime or suspicion.

There is a different sentence of life imprisonment which is where someone is in prison for life. This is often what people expect when they hear life sentence.

It is clear from the conversations these two murders had, they were very motivated to kill someone. If they got away with this murder they would likely do it again. So a 20 year sentence is needed. Because they are young they may change and come to genuinely regret these crimes, they also may not change. This type of sentence gives some flexibility - they can be let of jail in 20 years or kept in even longer.

I would expect they stay in prison for a longer time. A patrol board is going to have a hard time trusting them.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

This varies a lot all over the world, and in the United States state by state...

But generally, life sentences are given as a life sentence, but with a number of years and a possibility for parole

So you'll hear things like 20 to life. This is a life sentence.

You might hear life without parole.

Again, this varies wildly all over the place, but this might explain why this appears as a discrepancy

I'm assuming that these individuals both received life sentences, one with the possibility for parole after 20 years, and one with the possibility for parole after 22. But, I also have no idea.

[–] jwt@programming.dev 2 points 9 months ago

People are not being sentenced when they are 0 years old, so it doesn't make much sense comparing those numbers.

[–] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 1 points 9 months ago

Welcome to Europe.