MPs should get free vote on murder law reform, says lord chief
justice  Lord Judge says the law leaves some with a sense of
injustice after a report criticises mandatory life sentences for
murder A guard unlocks a prison cell Mandatory life sentences
for murder were introduced in 1965 to replace the death penalty.
Photograph: Halfdark/Getty Images/fStop  MPs should be given a
free vote on reform of the murder laws, the lord chief justice
has urged in response to calls for an end to mandatory life
sentences for the offence.  Conceding that the law was
"fiendishly difficult" and that some people were left with a
sense of injustice, Lord Judge said that a review of the
legislation might reduce demands for automatic sentences to be
scrapped.  His comments were made in the wake of a report by the
Homicide Review Advisory Group, which included judges, academics
and former QCs, that warned that neither mandatory sentences nor
the system for setting minimum terms were acceptable. So-called
mercy killings, the study n