THE LIFE SENTENCE REVIEW PROCESS

A step-by-step guide for prisoners

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NOTE: The advice given in this Guide may be changed if the Life Sentence Review Commissioners consider that additional or amended information should be included for the benefit of prisoners.

This document was posted mid July 2007

 

INTRODUCTION

1. If you have already received and read the information leaflets issued by the Prison Service explaining the procedures for reviewing life sentences you may have a fairly clear understanding of how your case would be referred to and dealt with by the Life Sentence Review Commissioners. This Guide sets out additional information on that process which you might find helpful.

THE LEGISLATION

2. For ease of reference, this Guide summarises parts of the relevant legislation - the Life Sentences (Northern Ireland) Order 2001 ("the Order") and the Life Sentence Review Commissioners' Rules 2001 ("the Rules"). It is important that you fully understand what the legislation means, and how the procedures affect you. It is in your interests to consider the benefits of legal representation. You or your representative should study the Order and the Rules carefully before submitting any material to the Commissioners or attending the oral hearing of your case.

THE REFERRAL

3. The Secretary of State starts the review process by referring your case to the Commissioners, usually about six months before the date at which your tariff period set by the courts is due to end, or following your recall to prison upon revocation of your licence. The Commissioners will then write to let you know that your case has been referred to them by the Secretary of State. That letter, known as the 'listing letter', will set a provisional date for your oral hearing by a panel of three Commissioners and also set the dates by which certain matters need to be completed so that your hearing can go ahead as provisionally arranged. All the dates and timings are counted forward from the date of the listing letter.

THE TIMETABLE

4. The steps and time limits set out in this Guide apply to prisoners who have not previously been released on licence and whose tariff has not yet expired.

4.1 However, if your tariff has already expired by the time your case is referred to the Commissioners or if you have been recalled to prison after a period of release on licence , then a shorter timetable will apply.

4.2 The Commissioners will try to arrange for your case to be heard as soon as practicable . But as all cases are considered individually, your timetable may differ from that of someone whose case you think is similar to your own.

SAMPLE TIMETABLE

5. If you take the date of your listing letter as "week 1", then the next steps go as follows:

5.1 By week 3 you must give the Commissioners and the Prison Service details of the person appointed to act as your representative. A form on which to do so is sent out with the listing letter. If you want to consult or employ a solicitor, you may be entitled to Legal Aid. You may of course choose to be represented by someone else, but please note that some categories of persons require the consent of the Commissioners. The Prison Service must also notify the Commissioners and you of the details of the person appointed to act as the Secretary of State's representative at this stage.

5.2 By week 5 you must notify the Commissioners and the Prison Service whether or not you wish to attend the hearing. A form on which to do so is sent out with the listing letter.

5.3 The Commissioners would encourage you to be represented and to attend your hearing, but if you choose not to be you will be offered an interview with a Commissioner who will not be on the panel hearing your case. The interview will only proceed if you agree to it. The purpose of the interview is to give you the opportunity to discuss your case with the Commissioner and mention anything that you would wish the panel to consider. The Commissioner may also ask you questions about matters that the panel might wish to consider. After the interview, the Commissioner will prepare a report for the panel, and send copies to you and to the Secretary of State.

5.4 By week 8 the Prison Service will make a dossier available to you or your representative. This will normally contain all the information and reports that the Secretary of State considers relevant to your suitability for release, so you and your representative will need to discuss the written evidence carefully.

5.5 By week 14 you must submit any representations that you wish to make about your case to the Commissioners and the Prison Service.

5.6 By week 16 you must submit a written application to the Commissioners for any witnesses that you want to call at the hearing. You must send a copy to the Prison Service. In the application you must provide a written outline of the evidence that each witness intends to adduce to enable the panel Chairman to give a direction on attendance and presentation of that evidence. A form on which you can do this is sent out with the listing letter. The Prison Service must also submit a written application to the Commissioners at this time for any witnesses required by the Secretary of State at the hearing and must send a copy to you.

5.7 You may also apply to be accompanied at the hearing by, for example, a family member, a friend, or a minister of religion. This can be done on the form to be used for witnesses. The Secretary of State also has a right to apply for the presence of others not directly involved.

5.8 The Chairman of the panel will direct whether or not these applications have been granted and give reasons in writing for the decision if any application is refused.

5.9 After all these stages have been completed (usually around 4-6 weeks in advance of the hearing) the final date of the hearing will be confirmed. At this stage, you or your representative must contact those being called as witnesses on your behalf and confirm that they are able to attend on the day of the hearing. The witnesses should, if possible, be available for the whole day. It is the responsibility of those calling witnesses to arrange for their attendance .

5.10 If you have any further documentation that you wish to have considered, you must submit it to the Commissioners and Prison Service in good time for the hearing.

5.11 If you or your representative wish to make any submissions on any point of law at the hearing, you or your representative should notify the Commissioners within one week from the day on which you receive confirmation of the actual date of hearing (which will be at least three weeks prior to the date of the hearing). The notification should include a summary of the point or points of law to be raised and should also include a list of any legal precedents, upon which you or your representative proposes to rely, together with their citation. If possible, photocopies of such precedents should accompany the notification and, in any event, a sufficient number of photocopies of precedents must be available at the hearing for use by the panel and the representative of the Secretary of State. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in the hearing of your case being delayed or adjourned.

THE ORAL HEARING

6. The hearing will usually be held in the Boardroom of the Lifer Management Unit, HMP Maghaberry. However, if you are a recalled prisoner being detained outside Northern Ireland the hearing will be heard in the establishment in which you are being detained.

7. Participants should note that from early 2007 all hearings will be recorded. Although the panel may grant permission for the taking of notes by the parties, the Rules prohibit information about the proceedings or the names of any persons concerned from being made public -see also Paragraph 17.

8. A room will be available for you and your representative and any witnesses to be called on your behalf to consult. A separate room will be available for the Secretary of State's representative and his witnesses. When the hearing is ready to begin, you will be escorted into the hearing room along with all the other participants listed below.

The Participants

9. The Panel is made up of three Commissioners. The function of the panel is to consider your suitability for release. In each case, one of the panel members is appointed to act as the chair of the panel. The Chairman of the panel will usually be a lawyer. One of the other panel members will be a psychiatrist or psychologist and the third panel member will be a person with relevant experience in this field. Each of the panel members is entitled to an equal voice on questions of law, procedure and substance. The panel will try to keep the proceedings as informal as possible.

10. The Secretary is a member of the Commissioners' Secretariat and is responsible for administrative duties during the oral hearing. The Secretary will also operate the recording equipment.

11. The Secretary of State is normally represented by a lawyer from the Crown Solicitor's Office and/or a prison governor. The governor is not there to give formal evidence about the prisoner, but may be asked general questions about the management of life sentence prisoners.

12. Your representative is the person you have chosen to represent you at the hearing.

12.1 Please note that although there may be lawyers present, their role is to represent the interests of their client. They are not the focus of the hearing. As far as possible, the hearing will be conducted in a way that is easily understood by all parties, using ordinary language and avoiding legal phrases such as 'cross-examination' and "re-examination".

13. Witnesses are people called by either you or the Secretary of State to give oral evidence at the hearing. In keeping with the informality of the hearing, witnesses are not required to give evidence on oath.

14. Observers are people granted permission by the Chairman of the panel to attend the hearing while taking no active part. These could include other Life Sentence Review Commissioners, but only the three panel members will play a role in the deliberations of the panel during and after the hearing.

The Layout of the Room

15. The three members of the panel will sit facing you, your representative and the Secretary of State's representative. The Secretary will sit on one side of the panel and the witnesses will sit on the opposite side of the panel while giving evidence. Unless the Chairman of the panel directs otherwise, only expert and professionally qualified witnesses can expect to be present during the entire hearing.

The Purpose of the Oral Hearing

16. The panel's task is to consider your suitability for release. The hearing lets the panel examine all the relevant evidence in depth, including your views and the views of the Secretary of State. The panel members may ask you questions and you should do your best to answer them.

16.1 Please note that if you have had a tariff set you must satisfy the panel that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public from serious harm that you be confined. Serious harm has been defined by the Commissioners as being "death or serious personal injury, whether physical or psychological, arising from a criminal offence committed by the prisoner and psychological injury should be understood as meaning serious psychological distress, or mental illness". It must be clear that the risk of you committing serious harm if you are released on licence is no more than minimal.

16.2 Where the Secretary of State makes any allegation of fact against you which you dispute it will be up to the Secretary of State to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that that fact is true.

16.3 If you have never had a tariff set but have been recalled to prison, the panel is required to have due regard to the need to protect the public from serious harm from life prisoners and also the desirability of preventing the commission by life prisoners of other offences and securing the rehabilitation of life prisoners. You must satisfy the panel that there is no more than a minimal risk of serious harm resulting if you are again released on licence.

Confidentiality of the Oral Hearing

17. The hearing will be held in private and those present must not subsequently make public any information about the proceedings or the names of any of those taking part.

The Order of Proceedings

18. This section outlines the way in which a hearing normally proceeds, but it is important to remember that the panel has discretion as to how it is conducted therefore this can vary. Your representative or the Secretary of State's representative may also make applications to the panel at the beginning of the hearing if they want to vary the proceedings.

19. The panel will try to keep the proceedings as informal as possible. The Chairman will direct his or her opening remarks to you, introduce all the participants and outline how the hearing will proceed. (You may be asked whether you object to the presence of any of the observers and, if so, why.)

20. The Chairman will ask the Secretary of State's representative to give the Secretary of State's view on what the outcome of your case should be. The Chairman will then ask your representative to state what decision and/or recommendation you will be asking the panel to make. This should be a short statement of fact. The Chairman will allow each party to make a closing statement at the end of the hearing.

21. The Chairman will then ask the Secretary of State's representative, to call his or her witnesses. The witnesses will usually be asked questions in the following order:

•  by the Secretary of State's representative;

•  by your representative;

•  by each panel member in turn;

21.1 The Chairman may, however, decide that panel members may ask questions before the witness is questioned by the Secretary of State's representative or your representative. If so, this will be intended to focus the questioning on what the panel regards as the important issues in your case.

22. Once all the Secretary of State's witnesses have been heard, your representative will be asked to call your witnesses. This time, the order in which the witnesses will be asked questions will be as follows:

•  by your representative;

•  by the Secretary of State's representative;

•  by each panel member in turn;

23. You will have an opportunity to speak on your own behalf if you wish. You may be asked questions by your own representative, the Secretary of State's representative and by members of the panel. It is important that you try to answer all questions put to you, including those from the panel.

24. Once all the evidence has been heard, the Chairman will ask the Secretary of State's representative to sum up in light of all the evidence presented and to make a closing statement. After that, your representative will be asked to sum up and to make a closing statement.

25. Finally, the Chairman will explain that when the panel reaches its decision it will be sent in writing to you within seven days. A copy of the decision will also be sent to your representative, and to the Prison Service.

The Decision of the Commissioners

26. At the end of the hearing, if the panel is satisfied that the level of risk you pose is no more than minimal, then it is required by law to direct that you should be released. This decision may be taken by a majority but will be presented as the decision of the entire panel. The Secretary of State must comply with the panel's direction to release.

27. The panel may also make recommendations about licence conditions attached to your release. The Secretary of State does not have to accept such recommendations but he cannot impose any licence condition that has not been recommended by the Commissioners. (The list of standard licence conditions is at Annex A)

28. If the panel is not satisfied about the level of risk you pose it must make it clear that no direction for release is being made. The panel will also recommend when your case should be reviewed again.

29. Whichever decision the panel makes, it must give its reasons in writing. Neither you nor the Secretary of State can appeal against the Commissioners' decision though it is open to either party to seek to challenge it by Judicial Review.

Life Sentence Review Commissioners

March 2007

LIST OF LICENCE CONDITIONS ANNEX A

Standard licence conditions

A On your release you must report to the probation officer so nominated, at the time and place designated.

B You shall place yourself under the supervision of whichever probation officer is nominated for this purpose and co-operate with risk assessment procedures required by this probation officer to enable your safe management and supervision.

C You shall keep in touch with your nominated probation officer in accordance with that officer's instructions.

D You shall receive visits at your home, or place of residence, from your probation officer as deemed appropriate by PBNI

E You will permanently reside at an address approved by your probation officer and you must notify that officer, in advance, of any proposed change of address or any proposed stay (even for one night) away from that approved address.

F You will undertake only such work (including voluntary work) approved by your probation officer and you must notify him or her, in advance, of any proposed change.

G You will not travel outside of Northern Ireland without the prior permission of your probation officer.

H You must not behave in such a way that would undermine the purposes of your supervision, which are to protect the public, prevent you from re-offending and help you resettle successfully into the community.