... Lord Lane in 1993 suggested the abolition of the mandatory sentence for murder, which would then leave the sentence to the discretion of the judge, and perhaps (to some extent) the jury and furthermore, Lord Irvine, the former Lord Chancellor has branded the current law "inappropriate [since] murder embraces such a multitude of diverse sins". At present, a person who helps to end the life of a terminally ill relative on compassionate grounds is treated in the same way as a cold-blooded killer. In cases such as R v Moloney, where the defendant is more stupid than evil, the defendant can be placed anywhere in between the two ends of the spectrum. The current mandatory life sentence in inflexible and goes against the doctrine of judicial independence. A Crown Court trial, with the aid of jurors, is supposedly society registering its disapproval of homicide offences, yet the circumstances of a particular ...

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