''R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex parte Venables and Thompson''
UKHL 25is a UK constitutional law">997
UKHL 25is a UK constitutional law case, concerning the exercise of independent judgement in judicial review.
Facts
Venables and Thompson claimed that the Home Secretary had unlawfully decided not to release them from prison, after Murder of James Bulger, they were convicted of murder as children. The Home Secretary took into account public petitions demanding the murderer be imprisoned for life. He refused to take account of their progress and development during detention. He increased the ‘tariff period’ from 10-15 years to delay release, and said they should be dealt with on the same basis as adult offenders, where mandatory life sentences were imposed.
Judgment
The House of Lords held by 3 to 2, that the Home Secretary acted unlawfully by taking into account irrelevant considerations (a public petition) and failing to take into account relevant considerations (progress in detention).
Lord Steyn
Johan van Zyl Steyn, Baron Steyn, PC (15 August 1932 – 28 November 2017) was a South African- British judge, until September 2005 a Law Lord. He sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
Early life and education
Steyn was born in Stell ...
said the following of the Home Secretary.
See also
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Anthony Anderson (murderer)
Anthony Anderson is a convicted British murderer.
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 ruled in favour of Anderson's cla ...
, who successfully challenged the Home Secretary's power to set minimum terms for sentences of life imprisonment
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United Kingdom constitutional law
The United Kingdom constitutional law concerns the governance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With the oldest continuous political system on Earth, the British constitution is not contained in a single code but princ ...
Notes
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References
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United Kingdom constitutional case law
United Kingdom enterprise case law