Section 211: Meaning of “imprisonment for life”—The applicant committed murder
consolidated text (as at 2017). juris shows the text as it was consolidated; it does not confirm that this is the law in force today.
211. Meaning of “imprisonment for life”—The applicant committed murder
in 1984 and was convicted and sentenced to death in 1985. Before he was
executed, the death penalty was abolished. Section 2 (3) of the Abolition of
Death Penalty Act 1995 provides that, “where any person has been sentenced to death, and the sentence has not been executed, the person shall
be deemed to have been sentenced to penal servitude for life”. Section 11 (2) of the Criminal Code, as amended in 1984, provided that the
maximum term which could be imposed was 20 years. The figure was
amended from “20” to “30” in 1985 and the amendment became operative
on 16 March 1986. In February 1986, the respondents pronounced that the
applicant’s term of imprisonment was 30 years. Applicant sought a declaration that his term of imprisonment, in fact, ought to be 20 years.
HELD in 1984 the maximum sentence of penal servitude which could
have been imposed in a case where no terms had been specified was
20 years. However, in applicant’s case, the term which had been imposed
was “for life”. This word must be given its ordinary dictionary meaning so
that penal servitude for life means that the penalty is “for life”. De Boucherville v Commissioner of Prisons (2006).