The Supreme Court has rejected a seven-year prison sentence for a mentally ill man convicted in 2018 of trying to kiss a stranger on a Wellington street without her permission – describing the man’s maximum sentence as one that “shocks the conscience”.
Four of the justices agreed the sentence was severe enough it breached the Bill of Rights, which states that “everyone has the right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment”. Parliament didn’t intend for the three-strikes law to result in sentences that violate the Bill of Rights or New Zealand’s international human rights obligations, the justices found.
Three-strikes law: Supreme Court rejects hefty prison sentence for unwanted kiss – NZ Herald
2021-10-04