Little Arthur

89,000 signatures on the petition means that the sentences are going to be reviewed.

The sentences were being reviewed anyway. Its got nothing to do with the petition.

Why are the sentences being reviewed? I despise these people who committed this dreadful and cruel crime, but trying force the hand of judges with petitions sounds a bit too much like mob rule to me.

If mob rule was a thing, I'm pretty sure the government wouldnt6be merrily doing their own thing, as they currently are.
As lucca says, they were being reviewed anyway.
Hopefully smashing a childs head in could mean a whole life sentence.

Anyone can appeal against, what they feel is, an unduly lenient offence. It happens all the time. It has no correlation to lynch mobs.

Correction - that should be mob rule.

A life sentence is always a whole life sentence and is the mandatory sentence if a person is convicted of murder. This step mother was convicted of murder and rather than allowing the ‘normal’ tariff of 20 years for a life sentence, the judge said she has got to serve a minimum of 29 years. She won’t necessarily be released after that, it will depend on the parole board, for which she must show genuine remorse. If she is released she will not be allowed, under the terms of her parole, to be near or associate with children. If she breaks the terms of her parole she would be recalled to prison, just as a convicted murderer was a few weeks ago. I’m not sure about the terms of the father’s sentence but I believe he was convicted of manslaughter, which can carry a life sentence, but the judge chose to sentence him to 21 years, serving a minimum of 12 years, I think. Personally I believe he should serve the full term of 21 years, and he may well, it will depend on him and the parole board.
As you know MissAdventure I abhor this dreadful crime and the suffering the poor little child was put through, but judges act within the law. If people believe that a 20 year sentence is too lenient for murder, it would be more productive to campaign for a change in the law.

It was good to learn that the monster woman was being given a hard time inside.

I couldn't eat anything the whole of the day when this horrendous news broke out, and cried every time it was on the news. I'm still brought to tears at his lovely face.

Local MP's can usually put their fluence on the length of a sentence. Until they die in prison would do me. No parole !

Well it wouldn’t bother me either Ellan, I was simply stating the position. However I don’t agree with mob rule at all. Campaigning to change the law seems a better route to me. There are a great many vile offenders in prison who have committed the most heinous crimes.

Better still in my own personal view, lethal injection ! They wouldn't be missed.

That would be the easy way out EllanVannin
Tustin has already attempted suicide and been taken to hospital once (pre-trial I think).

There are very few prisoners serving a whole life tariff, meaning they will end their days in prison.
I hope Tustin can be added to those few, if the death sentence isn't going to be reinstated.
I agree with Ellan.

EllanVannin

Better still in my own personal view, lethal injection ! They wouldn't be missed.

Too quick. They need to be made to suffer as they made Arthur suffer..

Maddyone. A life sentence is not usually 20 years. Life is life but only in very rare circumstances is a whole life term set and then it can be reduced by the Home Secretary, usually on compassionate grounds due to terminal illness etc.

Gang members are routinely given minimum tariffs over 30 years for shooting other gang members/drug dealers so why a judge saw fit to only set 29 years after what this woman did I do not know. Hindley and Brady were kept in, quite rightly, so I don’t understand any angst over this pair.

Seeing Arthur’s maternal grandmother on the clip provided by Miss Adventure yesterday, upset me even more as Arthur would have only been 5 when he was stopped from seeing her and his mum. They probably told him his grandmother and his mum didn’t want to see him. I can’t bear to think what must have gone through his little mind. Christmas presents delivered but never given to him? It wasn’t just the physical abuse but, as the judge commented, they systematically isolated him and destroyed him mentally before finally murdering him. A little boy? Just evil, pure evil and they deserve to suffer. Dying, being put to death is far too quick. Let them go mad in solitary with no hope of release.

Why should the tax-payer fund these monsters ?

Are you seriously suggesting that we kill people to save money?

They’re funding plenty of other vile monsters. Charles Bronson is being kept in and he hasn’t killed anyone. More that he, like the Krays, would become a celebrity, if released. There are many anomalies in the justice system. Victoria Climbie’s killers are another pair that shouldn’t see the light of day.

That would just be a bonus.

I didn't say it like that Alegrias1, you did, even if I do think that some should die for their crimes.

As it so happens I'm a supporter of someone who's currently serving an " until you die " sentence, which I firmly believe is a MOJ. A submission went to the CCRC in March of this year so we're hoping for a successful appeal after being incarcerated for over 36 years----on shonky evidence.
Eric Allison of the Guardian supports this.

I remember EllanVannin.
If we had had the death sentence when that person was found guilty, he/she wouldn't be here now.

I'm not saying there was a miscarriage of justice in that case but cases have been reviewed and people subsequently been found innocent.

I cannot see any reasonable doubt whatsoever in poor little Arthur's case but re-introducing the death penalty is just not right for all kinds of reasons.

And right, for just as many.
Tustin, at least, would certainly not come under the "miscarriage of justice" heading.

I’m not in any way trying to say that the crime committed was anything but terrible and I don’t need you tickingbird to point that out. If you don’t like the sentences set out in law for murder then perhaps you should start a campaign for the laws to be changed.

Personally I dislike the baying for blood on this thread. Capital punishment was abolished in the sixties, I think it might have been 1964 but I’m not certain of that. However it is my deeply held belief that the state never has the right to take life. If it does, it acts with the same cruelty and lack of justification that the murderer acted. And sometimes it gets it wrong and executes the wrong person. However this thread is not about capital punishment, it is about a little boy who was cruelly murdered by his step mother and father. It was a heinous crime, but we need to leave justice and punishment to the law makers and those who execute the law.

Isn't it better that they spend many miserable years in prison where other inmates will surely give them a hard time. It will be a long punishment. Not even some of the worst criminals tolerate a child killer.

Hear hear, maddyone.