ABSTRACT
In this chapter we look at the response of the British government to the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in the three key cases: Weeks decided in 1987, Thynne Wilson and Gunnell in 1990, and Singh and Hussain in 1996. In this chapter we trace the painful birth of Discretionary Lifer Panels of the Parole Board, concentrating on amendments added at a late stage to the Criminal Justice Bill 1990. It appears that the government was forced to act more swiftly than it wanted to, and produced a new ‘court’ to decide on the release of discretionary life sentence prisoners with some reluctance.
