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| Europe | |
| EU court: convicted murderers must be allowed to vote | |
| 2005-10-06 | |
A convicted killer has won the right to vote, opening the way for other prisoners to cast their ballots. John Hirst had claimed that British law, preventing prisoners from voting, infringed articles of the European Convention of Human Rights guaranteeing the right to free elections and free expression. 48,000 prisoners are currently barred from voting The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg agreed in 2004 when he was still a prisoner on day release. Today it rejected the Government's appeal. A panel of 17 European judges - the so-called Grand Chamber - dismissed the appeal and awarded Mr Hirst £16,000 in court expenses. Britain's voting law "stripped a significant category of people of their Convention right to vote in a way which was indiscriminate," the court said in a statement. Mr Hirst, 54, said his fight had been about breaking the link between crime and the right to take part in the democratic process. "The human rights court has agreed with me that the Government's position is wrong - it doesn't matter how heinous the crime, everyone is entitled to have the basic human right to vote," he said. Mr Hirst was detained in 1980 and sentenced to life imprisonment for manslaughter, before his release in November. The ruling allows all prisoners in Britain to cast their vote in national and regional elections in future if they wish to do so. The 48,000 prisoners in Britain are currently banned from voting under the 1983 Representation of the People Act. "The Court considered 48,000 is a significant figure and it could not be claimed that the bar was negligible in its effect," the court statement added. Juliet Lyon, Prison Reform Trust director said: " Prisoners should be given every opportunity to payback for what they have done, take responsibility for their lives and make plans for effective resettlement and this should include maintaining their right to vote." Dominic Grieve, the shadow attorney general, attacked the ruling: "If convicted rapists and murderers are given the vote it will bring the law into disrepute and many people will see it as making a mockery of justice." | |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #9 Convicted murderers SHOULD be allowed to vote. Vote on what thier last meal is and on being shot or hung. |
| Posted by: FeralCat 2005-10-06 20:08 |
| #8 Its from the same people who believe a mass murder can't be executed cause 'life' is a basic human right. Not that the rights of the victims count. They have no standing in these types of courts. |
| Posted by: Wholuger Whavirt7613 2005-10-06 13:45 |
| #7 EU/Council of Europe -- it's six of one and half-a-dozen of the other to us. Next the convicts will have the right to bear arms. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2005-10-06 13:23 |
| #6 Are their victims still dead? Can they vote? When will the Brit's learn that the EU is circling the drain? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-10-06 13:20 |
| #5 "...it doesn't matter how heinous the crime, everyone is entitled to have the basic human right to vote," Hell John...with that kinda record if you live in Wisconson and vote Democrat you can vote twice. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2005-10-06 13:19 |
| #4 Not an EU court, that's a Council of Europe court. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2005-10-06 12:34 |
| #3 When are the Brits going to wake up and escape the Asylum? |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-10-06 11:42 |
| #2 How long until the "Grand Chamber" decides convicted killers cannot be deprived of the right to free movement? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-10-06 11:40 |
| #1 Pure folly. Murderers effectively get two votes and live to enjoy the privilege of course. Other great leaps of human rights logic are surely around the corner. |
| Posted by: MunkarKat 2005-10-06 11:35 |