Life imprisonment in New Zealand
has been the most severe criminal sentence in New Zealand since the death penalty was abolished in 1989 having not been applied since 1957. Offenders sentenced to life imprisonment must serve a minimum of 10 years imprisonment before they are eligible for parole, although the sentencing judge may set a longer minimum period or no minimum period at all. Released offenders remain on parole and are subject to electronic tagging for the rest of their life.
Life imprisonment in New Zealand for crimes other than murder is relatively rare. Only six life sentences since 1980 have been for crimes other than murder - one for manslaughter in 1996, and five for drug offences in 1985, 1996, 2008 and 2009. In contrast, there have been 886 life sentences for murder during the same period.
Offences
Life imprisonment is the mandatory sentence for treason. It is the presumptive sentence for murder, being mandatory unless in the circumstances it would be manifestly unjust. Life imprisonment is an optional sentence for aircraft hijacking, Class A drug dealing, manslaughter and terrorism.Life imprisonment for murder
The imposition of life imprisonment for murder is codified in sections 102 to 104 of the Sentencing Act 2002.Circumstances where life imprisonment might be deemed manifestly unjust include mercy killings, failed suicide pacts, and "battered defendants" who were subjected to "prolonged and severe abuse".
Since the Sentencing and Parole Reform Act 2010 came into force, judges must sentence offenders to life imprisonment without possibility of parole if they have a previous conviction for a serious violent offence, unless given the circumstances it would be manifestly unjust to do so. In R v Harrison, the Court of Appeal dismissed the Crown's appeal of two cases where the sentencing judges applied the manifestly unjust provision and gave the offenders life imprisonment with possibility of parole. The Court of Appeal ruled that imposing life imprisonment without parole in these cases would be inconsistent with the right not to be subjected to disproportionately severe treatment or punishment under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, especially given one offender's previous serious violent offence was at the minor end of the scale.
There is no minimum age for imposing life imprisonment. The youngest people sentenced to life imprisonment in New Zealand were aged 13 years at the time of the offence.
Case law
- R v Williams 2 NZLR 506 – judgement providing guidance on sentencing offenders subject to the 17-year minimum period of imprisonment contained in section 104 of the Sentencing Act 2002.
- Churchward v R NZCA 531; 25 CRNZ 446 – judgement providing guidance on imposing minimum periods of imprisonment when sentencing adolescent offenders.
Longest minimum periods of imprisonment
Sentences where a minimum term of imprisonment of 20 years or more has been imposed include:
| Length | Offender | Date of offence | Description |
| 30 years | William Dwane Bell | 8 December 2001 | Murder of three people and attempted murder of a fourth during an armed robbery at the Panmure RSA clubrooms. He was initially jailed for a minimum period of 33 years, which was reduced by 3 years on appeal. |
| 28 years | Paul Russell Wilson | 7 April 2018 | Murder of Nicole Tuxford. He had murdered his girfriend Kimberley Schroder in 1994 and killed Tuxford while on parole. |
| 27 years | Russell John Tully | 1 September 2014 | Murder of two staff members and attempted murder of a third at the Ashburton Work and Income office. He also received an 11-year sentence for the attempted murder and 4 years for firearms-related charges, served concurrently. |
| 26 years | Graeme Burton | 6 January 2007 | One murder and ten other offences – two of attempted murder, two of aggravated robbery, two of kidnapping, two of using a firearm against a law enforcement officer, aggravated injury and injuring with reckless disregard – during a shooting spree in the Wainuiomata hills. He was also sentenced to preventive detention with a non-parole period of 26 years for the ten secondary offences. He had murdered a man in 1992 and was on parole in 2007. |
| 25 years | Bruce Howse | 4 December 2001 | Murder of his stepdaughters, 12-year-old Saliel Aplin and 11-year-old Olympia Jetson, at their Masterton home. Reduced from 28 years on appeal. |
| 24 years | Tony Douglas Robertson | 24 May 2014 | Murder of Blessie Gotingco. He was on parole from a prison sentence for abducting and molesting a 5-year-old girl. |
| 23 years | Liam Reid | 15 November 2007 | Murder of Emma Agnew in Christchurch. Reduced from 26 years on appeal. |
| 23 years | Jason Somerville | September 2008, August 2009 | Murder of neighbour Tisha Lowry in 2008 and his wife Rebecca Chamberlain in 2009, burying both bodies under his home in Christchurch. |
| 23 years | Jeremy McLaughlin | 10 November 2011 | Murder of 13-year-old Jade Bayliss by strangulation while burgling her Christchurch house, before trying to cover up the murder by setting fire to the house. He had previously been in a relationship with Bayliss's mother but the relationship ended after conflict between him and Jade. He also received 8 years for the burglary and 4 years for arson, served concurrently. He had previously been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in Australia for the 1995 manslaughter of 14-year-old Phillip Vidot. |
| 21 years | Hayden McKenzie | Late 2003 | Murder of Jae-hyeon Kim. He had murdered James Bambrough in 1999 and had already served four years for that, so will serve a total of 25 years before being eligible for parole. |
| 21 years | Kamal Gyanendra Reddy | 2006 | Murder of his girlfriend and her 3-year-old daughter. |
| 20 years | Mark Lundy | 29 August 2000 | Murder of his wife Christine and seven-year-old daughter Amber at their Palmerston North home. Increased from 17 years on appeal. The Privy Council quashed Lundy's convictions in 2013 and ordered a retrial. In 2015, Lundy was re-convicted of the murders and re-sentenced to the earlier 20-year minimum imprisonment. |
| 20 years | David Konia | 27 May 2005 | Murder of Margaret Waldin and Ted Ferguson at Ferguson's Feilding home. Konia died on 14 January 2015 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer a year earlier. |
Antonie Dixon was given a minimum term of 20 years for the murder of James Te Aute on 21 January 2003, but the conviction was later quashed. He was re-tried and reconvicted, but committed suicide in his prison cell before he could be re-sentenced.
The longest minimum period for a woman is 19 years, currently being served by Tracy Jean Goodman for the murder of pensioner Mona Morriss in the course of a burglary in Marton in January 2005.
Preventive detention
There is also provision for an indefinite sentence of preventive detention, which can be given for sexual or violent crimes for which life imprisonment is not available. Since the Sentencing Act 2002 came into force, this has been given to repeat sexual offenders and serious violent recidivist offenders. Preventive detention has a minimum period of imprisonment of five years, but the sentencing judge can extend this if they believe that the prisoner's history warrants it. The sentence of preventive detention was first introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 1954.The longest minimum period of imprisonment on a sentence of preventive detention is one of 28 years, which was given in 1984.