Sentencing, Stephen Lawrence and the Rule of Law

Mr Justice Treacy's sentencing remarks in the Stephen Lawrence case are now available to view. As students - have a read and see if you can identify aggravating and mitigating factors referred to by the judge.

 The BBC also have a good clip here from an interview prior to the sentences being passed in which a barrister explains how the judge will approach matters.



As the offences in question were prior to Schedule 21 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 on sentencing for murder - the Act does not apply to Dobson and Norris. Accordingly they were sentenced as juveniles, under the law which applied at the time. Whilst some have expressed concerns that this means shorter sentences than they would receive under the modern law, it is in accordance with the rule of law that laws should not have retrospective effect. In other words, if a law is to be applied it should have been in force at the relevant time.

Court Visits

Mr Howells' classes will be visiting Minshull Street Crown Court the week after next.

Thursday Morning class - LWAS-V1-09: Thursday 4th February

Friday Morning class - LWAS-Z2-09: Friday 5th February.

Meet at 9.45 outside Court.


Minshull Street Crown Court is near Piccadilly Station:


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For more details, watch this space!

Harpist guilty of handling stolen goods

Jemima Phillips, official harpist to Prince Charles, was found guilty of handling stolen goods at Gloucester Crown Court today, having already admitted fraud. Apparently the cause of her offending is drug-related.

She has been told that a prison sentence is likely, and was granted Bail until the sentencing hearing. Story on video from the BBC here.
Questions for AS students:
1. Who will have decided her guilt?
2. What grounds for appeal are open to her?
3. Would you have given her bail or not, and why?
4. What do you consider an appropriate sentence to be, and why?

Garrow's Law...

is a new series on BBC1 based on the Old Bailey trial records. It shows the development of our modern adversarial system of justice and might be an eye-opener as to how the courts once worked - or didn't! It's based on pioneering Eighteenth-century Barrister William Garrow's career. Watch here!

Can kids be criminals?

There's a really good discussion on Radio 4's Law in Action programme here, or download the free podcast of it here.

Can younger children know right from wrong?

Can they anticipate the true consequences of their actions?

Can they understand complicated court proceedings?

So, what do you think the age of criminal responsibility should be? 10? 12? 14? 18? Thousands of crimes are committed by the under 10s, but are we demonising our kids?

Complete the poll on the right - but read the article or listen to the discussion first!

Court trips

Mr Howells and Miss Standing's shared group - Wednesday 10th June, morning - meet at Court at 9.45.

Mr Howells' Mon/Thurs group - Thursday 11th June, afternoon - meet at Court at 1.30pm.

Mr Howells' Tues/Thursday group - Thursday 11th June, morning - meet at Court at 9.45 am.

Minshull Street Crown Court is near Piccadilly Station:


View Larger Map

For more details, watch this space!

Justice on Trial

The Guardian has just begun a campaign called Justice on Trial, aiming to highlight cases where there is a major concern that a miscarriage of justice has taken place. (Pictured here is Sally Clark, who was wrongly convicted of shaking her two baby sons to death on the basis of now discredited medical evidence).

Miscarriages of justice do not appear to have gone away, as the recent case of the Cardiff Three shows.

There's a good short film to watch (but be warned - it contains some strong language from the start) and a fantastic slideshow of some of the higher-profile miscarriages of justice that have taken place over the years.

Neighbour from Hell jailed!

Thanks to Tom Proctor for finding this one for me about a noisy neighbour who was jailed for nine months having pleaded guilty to breaching the injunction on her at Tameside Magistrates' Court.

This is the sort of thing she was doing:



This is what the local housing officer had to say about it: