Legal constraints and judicial discretion in sentencing practice: Appraisal analysis of the sentencing remarks for Terri Palmer

Abstract

AbstractIn the sentencing of murder cases in England and Wales, it is required by law that judges must take into consideration the factors listed in sentencing laws and guidelines (henceforth statutory factors). However, judges also have the discretion to include factors that are not listed in such laws or guidelines (henceforth non-statutory factors). This paper explores judges’ positioning towards legal constraints and judicial discretion in sentencing by applying the Appraisal framework to analyse statutory and non-statutory factors in the sentencing remarks for a randomly selected murder case. The major analytical findings are that, with regard to statutory factors, attitudes are implicit and are mainly presented through heteroglossia, while, with regard to non-statutory factors, attitudes are explicit and are mainly presented through monoglossia. These different appraisal features of statutory and non-statutory factors reflect the constraints of sentencing laws and guidelines on the judge’s sentencing practice, and the judge’s full play of judicial discretion in the sentencing of this case. It is expected that findings of this study could add to current understanding of sentencing practice, while its analytical procedure could facilitate appraisal analysis of more sentencing remarks, which would, in turn, complement socio-legal studies on sentencing practice.