ABSTRACT
As interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights, Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights requires courts to review whole life sentences after prisoners have served a considerable part of the sentence, presumably 25 years. The review has two independent aims. In the first place, the aim of making review available is to offer to whole life prisoners a hope of regaining their freedom. Moreover, it aims to prevent punishing the prisoner disproportionately more severely than is justified by the legitimate aims of punishment. This chapter analyses the applicability of the rationale of the right to review to the situation of prisoners whose mandatory custodial term is longer than their actuarial or clinical life expectancy, and those who are otherwise seriously ill. The analysis demonstrates that a serious illness and the likelihood of dying in prison may impact the severity of the sentence, making continued imprisonment unlawful. Therefore, as in whole life imprisonment cases, when prisoners are likely to die in detention or are otherwise seriously ill the fundamental nature of human dignity requires a review of continued imprisonment in order to prevent punishing the prisoner grossly more severely than is justified by the legitimate aims of punishment.
