Sentence – Mandatory life sentence. The first defendant had been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years and the second defendant had been sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order. The instant proceedings challenged the statutory scheme enacted for sentencing an adult guilty of murder as incompatible with art 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, held that the statutory regime was compatible with art 3 of the Convention, as it provided to an offender 'hope' or the 'possibility' of release in exceptional circumstances which rendered the just punishment originally imposed no longer justifiable. In the defendants' circumstances, whole life orders were appropriate.