Referring to the murder of Sophie Lancaster, Shane Greer comments that,
Sophie was killed because she dressed a certain way, and one day her killers will go free and unhindered; where is the justice in that?
Justice has been done because Miss Lancaster’s killers have been convicted. If the law decides that they may be freed after a set period, this is not a matter of justice no longer being done so much as it is matter of mercy being applied.
Mr Greer states that,
Many times in the past I have argued in favour of restorative justice, but I’m afraid when it comes to murder of the kind in this case there is no place for anything other than a sentence of life (where life means life).
Life sentences given without the possibility of parole is the application of justice without mercy. And justice without mercy is a vindictive form of justice.
Life without parole sentences may as well be death penalties because they give up on the prisoner; they tell him that in the eyes of society he has no ability to reform and must therefore remain behind bars all his days on account of this.
But no one is beyond reforming – not the killers of Sophie Lancaster, or the most evil dictators of the past and present, or anyone in between. And society, rather than wishing to jail people for all their lives, should simply be determined to – if it is possible - reform them. For what would be a more powerful statement regarding the wickedness and futility of murder: a forgotten man in prison for fifty years for his crime or the man who has been helped during his period inside and is now able to say sorry and testify to the ruinous nature of his crime?
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