TWO PRISONERS jailed for murder and transferred from prisons in the UK to serve out their sentences here have lost their High Court actions aimed at having their cases reviewed by an independent tribunal.
John Coughlan, jailed in 1996 for life, with a minimum 14-year tariff set by the UK trial judge, is now in his 16th year of imprisonment. Jonathon Caffrey, jailed in 1999 with a recommended minimum 12-year tariff, is in his 13th year. Both men had sought an independent review of their cases.
They claimed, under the European Convention on Human Rights, that prisoners serving life were entitled to a periodic review by an independent body. The failure to provide a proper independent and impartial review of their detention left them in a state of indefinite uncertainty, potentially for the rest of their lives, they argued.
Rejecting their challenges yesterday, the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, said it was at all times made clear to the prisoners that the management of their sentences would be governed by the law of this State.
As they had not queried or objected to that management regime when availing of the transfer procedure, they were not now permitted to seek to challenge the validity of the management of their life sentences.
The judge also ruled the powers of commutation and remission vested in the executive constituted administrative acts and did not encroach on the administration of justice by the courts.
Coughlan and Caffrey had sought orders compelling the State to put in place a review on their sentences and detention by a competent, impartial and independent tribunal; and prohibiting the Parole Board as currently constituted taking any further steps in reviewing their detention.
They sought a declaration that the Parole Board here, as currently constituted, and the mechanism for reviewing sentences in this country, were contrary to the State’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Caffrey was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1999 for murder. A tariff of 12 years’ imprisonment was recommended by the trial judge in the UK, while he also received a concurrent eight-year sentence for causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
In May 2005, Caffrey was transferred to Portlaoise Prison to serve the balance of his sentence here.
John Coughlan was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 for murder, with a 14-year tariff recommended by the UK trial judge. In 2003 he was transferred to serve his sentence here and is detained in the Mountjoy Prison training unit.
Both prisoners had claimed the determination of the length of a sentence was a matter exclusively for the courts and not the executive. The Minister for Justice, they argued, determined the stage at which to grant early release on receipt of advice from the Parole Board.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Kearns said a sentence of life imprisonment in this jurisdiction was on wholly punitive grounds and no part of it was for preventive purposes.
The decision by the Minister for Justice whether to exercise his discretion to release either of the two men was not a judicial function but wholly administrative in nature, he said.
The European Convention on Human Rights also conferred no general right to release or to have a sentence reviewed by an organ of the State.