Up to 50 years imprisonment for murderers with new law passed by House

As a response to the high levels of crime recently the House of Representatives made legislative changes that sees killers facing up to 50 years in prison. A move lauded by a senior Government official as a "vital and deliberate".

The amendments to the Offences Against the Person Act (OAPA) and the Criminal Justice Administration Act (CJAA) provide significantly higher mandatory minimum sentences for capital and non-capital murders.

The changes come amid public consternation over perceived slap-on-the-wrist sentences meted out by judges.

Under the amended OAPA, a person convicted for capital murder will have to serve a mandatory minimum of 50 years in prison, up from 20 years, before being eligible for parole.

The mandatory minimum sentence for non-capital murder is now 30 years.

A person who is convicted for non-capital murder and sentenced to life in prison will now have to serve 40 years in prison, up from 15 years, before being eligible for parole.

Where a set prison term, instead of a life sentence, is imposed for a non-capital murder conviction, the parole eligibility period is 20 years.

A life sentence under the amended CJAA now equates to 50 years in prison, up from 30 years.

Information Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon says the higher penalties are the Government's way of demonstrating that "we are serious about preserving life and we are very serious about the rights of the victims".

"No one should think that 'I can commit murder and I can go and cool out for a bit in jail and can come back out after 15 years or so and commit another murder'. We are saying that is no longer the case," she said during a Post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House on Wednesday.

"So this is us saying to Jamaica we hear the cries of all the people who have been victims and their families have been victims to murder."

Morris Dixon noted that the amendments seek to maintain the incentive scheme built into the law that encourages defendants to plead guilty, while also ensuring that the reduced sentence is not inordinately low.

"So you will still get that credit if you plead guilty, but the term that they serve needs to be sufficiently long to serve as a disincentive for doing this," she explained, making reference to the provision in the legislation that provides discounts to defendants who enter a plea of guilty.

- Livern Barrett

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