Anthony Anderson is a convicted

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

er. He is most notable for successfully challenging the Home Secretary's powers to set minimum terms for life sentence prisoners. On 25 November 2002, the

Law Lords Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...

ruled in favour of Anderson's claim that it was incompatible with human rights for politicians to set minimum terms for life sentence prisoners, and the next day the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

agreed with this decision, meaning that politicians in European countries can no longer decide the minimum length of imprisonment for anyone serving a life sentence. British politicians had already been stripped of their powers five years earlier to set minimum terms for prisoners aged under 18 after the High Court ruled that

Michael Howard Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet posi ...

had acted unlawfully by deciding that the juvenile killers of toddler James Bulger should spend at least 15 years in custody. Anderson's successful challenge was a

test case In software engineering, a test case is a specification of the inputs, execution conditions, testing procedure, and expected results that define a single test to be executed to achieve a particular software testing objective, such as to exercise ...

which affected approximately 225 convicted British murderers who had been given recommended minimum terms at their trial, only for the term to be increased by the Home Secretary at a later date. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988 on two charges of murder. His first victim was Thomas Walker, aged 60, who died in September 1986 after being punched and kicked by Anderson during a burglary. Anderson's next victim was 35-year-old Michael Tierney, who died in May 1987, having also been killed by Anderson in a burglary. The trial judge sentenced Anderson to life imprisonment and recommended that he should serve a minimum of 15 years before being considered for

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

, which would keep him in prison until at least 2003. Six years after Anderson's trial,

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

increased Anderson's minimum term to 20 years, meaning that he would now have to wait until at least 2008 before release could be even considered. Anderson had tried to challenge the Home Secretary's tariff-setting powers earlier, but his first case in February 2001 failed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Anthony Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People convicted of murder by England and Wales Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by England and Wales English people convicted of murder English prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment 1986 murders in the United Kingdom 1986 in England 1987 murders in the United Kingdom 1987 in England