The right to a fair trial means cutting the funding of cultural reports will simply shift the burden. Lawyers will find other ways to put the same information before a judge.
Research on developing brains has helped bring about a sea change in attitudes toward juvenile life without parole. But many people who committed crimes as minors are still serving such sentences.
A 25-year old sex offender was given a 10% discount on his sentence due to his age, and ended up getting home detention. But is 25 really too young to understand the gravity of sexual assault?
Lisa Marriott, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand came very close to having an independent sentencing council to help set sentencing guidelines for crimes. For the sake of consistency, it might be time to revive the idea.
The prosecution and death sentences handed out to two British and one Moroccan national fighting alongside Ukrainian troops contravenes the Geneva Conventions.
Experts help explain the context around the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and subsequent trial and convictions of Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Bryan.
New Zealand and Australia have no prisoner transfer agreement. By negotiating one, we could deport the Christchurch terrorist and help resolve the trans-Tasman prisoner problem in the process.
The fallout from the Huffman case has been intense, with much anger centered on the light punishment meted out to a white A-list celebrity versus the excessive charges levelled at Black defendants.
Governments impose harsh restrictions to the freedom of sex offenders after their sentence. But there’s no evidence to support that ‘doing more of the same’ improves community safety.
How do jurors use different kinds of information about mental illness when making sentencing decisions? An experiment finds that neurobiological evidence could harm or help defendants.