KINGSTON, Jamaica – Three bills that seek to appropriately treat with and increase the penalties for the offence of murder under Jamaican law were debated and passed in the Senate on Friday.
Kamina Johnson SmithThey are the Offences Against The Person (Amendment) Bill, the Criminal Justice (Administration) (Amendment) Bill and the Child Care Protection (Amendment) Bill.
Amendments were made to the Offences Against The Person and the Child Care Protection bills.
No amendment was made to the Criminal Justice (Administration) (Amendment) Bill.
The bills were piloted by the Leader of Government Business Senator Kamina Johnson Smith who said the Offences Against The Person Amendment Act will see the mandatory minimum sentence for non-capital murder move from 15 years to 30 years.
Johnson Smith outlined the tough new measures in the legislation.
“Clause 2 of the Offences Against the Persons Amendment Act 2025 seeks to amend Section 3 of the principal legislation. And essentially it does four things. It seeks to increase the mandatory minimum sentence with respect to non-capital murder from 15 years to 30 years; it seeks to increase the mandatory minimum sentence for capital murder from 20 years to 50 years to be served before being eligible for parole, Mr. President; and it increases the sentence to be served before being eligible for parole, where the sentence is imprisonment for life, from 15 years to 40 years; and finally, Mr. President, increasing the sentence to be served before being eligible for parole, where a sentence of term of years is given, from 10 years to 20 years.”
Johnson Smith also made it clear that child killers are facing longer prison sentences under the new law.
“Where the victim of a non-capital murder is a child, the court shall add a period of up to five years to the sentence imposed. That’s the amendment,” she declared.
Additionally, where the court imposes a sentence of life or a sentence of term of years, once the victim of the non-capital murder is a child, then another five years must be added to the period that must be served before the period of eligibility.
In April, the government drew the ire of child rights groups after it initially proposed an amendment to the Child Care and Protection Act to allow the courts to set a minimum sentence of 20 years before a minor found guilty of murder becomes eligible for parole.
But Justice Minister Delroy Chuck told the House that sentence and parole eligibility for minors who are convicted of noncapital murder will be left up to the court’s discretion.
