Sentencing Laws

In 2002, Labour passed new Sentencing and Parole laws in response to the 1999 Norm Withers Petition on crime - which called for more Restorative Justice and Tougher Penalties. Today, one of the most foul parts of that law was used to sentence a murderer to less than ten years imprisonment.

According to evidence given, Eric Smail stabbed and cut the throat of his victim - hardly the sort of behaviour that would make a life sentence and a ten year non-parole period "manifestly unjust".