The Weekly Round-Up: Coroner criticises indeterminate prison sentences and hundreds of protest arrests made in the US
29 April 2024
In UK News
At the conclusion of the inquest into the death of Scott Rider, the coroner described Rider’s treatment in prison as “inhumane and indefensible”. Rider died by suicide in June 2022 after serving 17 years of an “imprisonment for public protection” (IPP) sentence, a form of indeterminate prison sentence. A few weeks before his death Rider told a member of prison staff that he felt as though his sentence had ruined his life and there was no hope of release. IPP sentences were abolished in 2012, but the abolition did not apply retrospectively to those who had already received the sentence. As of 31 December 2022 there were 2,892 prisoners serving IPP sentences. The coroner sent a Prevention of Future Deaths Report to the prisons minister, writing that “if action is not taken to review all prisoners sentenced to IPP then there is a risk of further deaths occurring”.
The purpose of inquest proceedings also came under scrutiny this week, with the outgoing Chief Coroner, HHJ Thomas Teague KC, describing “a long-latent tension” at the heart of what the coronial service is trying to achieve in his Annual Report published on Thursday. He criticised the pressure on coroners to expand the scope of their investigations and expressed his view that “an inquest should remain a hearing that is narrowly focused on establishing a person’s immediate cause of a death, as opposed to in effect becoming a surrogate public inquiry”.
Finally, the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration Act) 2024 was passed into law on Thursday. The Act requires decision makers to “conclusively treat the Republic of Rwanda as a safe country”, where a “safe country” means a country to which a person may be removed without violating the UK’s obligations under international law. Speaking on 22 April, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that he anticipated that first flight removing people to Rwanda would leave in 10-12 weeks, stating that “these flights will go come what may” and that “no foreign court will stop us from getting flights off”.
In international news
Major campus protests have broken out across the US regarding the ongoing conflict in Gaza, with students calling for their universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel. Hundreds of arrests have been made over the last week. At New York University 120 people who had erected an encampment were arrested and all but four were charged with trespass. Hundreds more arrests were made at Emerson University, Yale University, Columbia University, the University of South California and the University of Texas. At the University of Texas, the state Governor called in troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety, who wore riot gear and were seen using their bikes to push protesters back.
In the Courts
The High Court dismissed the Solicitor General’s claim against Ms Trudi Warner in a judgment handed down on Monday. On 27 March 2023 Warner had stood outside a court where members of an environmental protest group were due to be tried with a placard that read “JURORS YOU HAVE AN ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO ACQUIT A DEFENDANT ACCORDING TO YOUR CONSCIENCE”. The Solicitor General alleged that Warner’s conduct was intended to interfere with the administration of justice and amounted to contempt of court. Mr Justice Saini held that it was “fanciful” to suggest that Warner’s behaviour could be considered to fall within the category of contempt. The content of the placard “accurately informed potential prospective jurors about one of their legal powers… It is not unlawful to accurately communicate the bare principle of law to potential jurors in a public forum”.
