Life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

has been the most severe criminal sentence in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

since the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

was abolished in 1989, having not been used since 1957. Offenders sentenced to life imprisonment must serve a minimum of 10 years imprisonment before they are eligible 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 ...

, although the sentencing judge may set a longer minimum period or decline to set a minimum period at all (meaning the offender will spend the rest of their life in prison). Released offenders remain on parole and are subject to

electronic tagging Electronic tagging is a form of surveillance that uses an electronic device affixed to a person. In some jurisdictions, an electronic tag fitted above the ankle is used for people as part of their bail or probation conditions. It is also used in ...

for the rest of their life. Life imprisonment in New Zealand for crimes other than murder is relatively rare. Of 941 life sentences imposed since 1980, only seven have been for crimes other than murder – one for manslaughter in 1996, one for an act of terrorism in 2020, and five for drug offences in 1985, 1996, 2008 (two) and 2009.

Offences

Life imprisonment is the mandatory sentence for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

. It is the presumptive sentence for

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 ...

, being mandatory unless in the circumstances it would be manifestly unjust. Life imprisonment is an optional sentence for

aircraft hijacking Aircraft hijacking (also known as airplane hijacking, skyjacking, plane hijacking, plane jacking, air robbery, air piracy, or aircraft piracy, with the last term used within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States) is the unlawfu ...

, Class A drug dealing,

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

and

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

Life imprisonment for murder

The imposition of life imprisonment for murder is codified in sections 102 to 104 of the Sentencing Act 2002. Circumstances where life imprisonment might be deemed manifestly unjust include

mercy killing Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eutha ...

suicide pact A suicide pact is an agreed plan between two or more individuals to die by suicide. The plan may be to die together, or separately and closely timed. General considerations Suicide pacts are an important concept in the study of suicide, and h ...

s, and "battered defendants" who were subjected to "prolonged and severe abuse". There is no minimum age for imposing life imprisonment. The youngest people sentenced to life imprisonment in New Zealand were aged 13 years at the time of the offence.

Case law

* ''R v Williams''

005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...

2 NZLR 506 – judgement providing guidance on sentencing offenders subject to the 17-year minimum period of imprisonment contained in section 104 of the Sentencing Act 2002. * ''Churchward v R''

011 The following is a list of different international call prefixes that need to be dialled when placing an international telephone call from different countries. Countries by international prefix Countries using optional carrier selection cod ...

NZCA 531; (2011) 25 CRNZ 446 – judgement providing guidance on imposing minimum periods of imprisonment when sentencing adolescent offenders. *

Longest minimum periods of imprisonment

A sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole has been given only once, to Brenton Tarrant for the

Christchurch mosque shootings On 15 March 2019, two consecutive mass shootings occurred in a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The attacks, carried out by a lone gunman who entered both mosques during Friday prayer, began at the Al Noor Mosque ...

in March 2019. The longest minimum period of imprisonment on a sentence of life imprisonment with possibility of parole is 30 years, currently being served by

William Dwane Bell William Dwane Bell (born 1978) is a New Zealand triple murderer. He committed a triple murder on 8 December 2001 at the Panmure RSA, after they fired him. He committed the murders while out on parole for a previous aggravated robbery in which h ...

. Sentences imposed with a minimum term of imprisonment of 20 years or more or with no possibility of parole include:

Antonie Dixon Antonie Dixon (1968 – 4 February 2009) was a convicted New Zealand thief and murderer. His most notorious crimes were committed in an 11-hour spree of violence in 2003 in which he completely or partially severed the hands or arms of two wom ...

was given a minimum term of 20 years for the murder of James Te Aute on 21 January 2003, but the conviction was later quashed. He was re-tried and reconvicted, but committed suicide in his prison cell before he could be re-sentenced. The longest minimum period for a woman is 19 years, currently being served by Tracy Jean Goodman for the murder of pensioner Mona Morriss in the course of a burglary in Marton in January 2005.

Preventive detention

There is also provision for an indefinite sentence of

preventive detention Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non-punitive purposes, most often to prevent (further) criminal acts. Types of preventive detention There is no universally agreed definition of preventive detention, and mu ...

, which can be given for sexual or violent crimes for which life imprisonment is not available (preventive detention can be imposed alongside life imprisonment, for example, where convictions for sexual or violent crimes accompany a murder conviction). Since the Sentencing Act 2002 came into force, this has been given to repeat sexual offenders and serious violent recidivist offenders. Preventive detention has a minimum period of imprisonment of five years, but the sentencing judge can extend this if they believe that the prisoner's history warrants it. The sentence of preventive detention was first introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 1954. The longest minimum period of imprisonment on a sentence of preventive detention is one of 28 years, which was given in 1984.

References

{{World topic, Life imprisonment in, noredlinks=y, title=

Law enforcement in New Zealand Sentencing (law)