The Court of Appeal has rejected a bid by the Crown to sentence two convicted murderers to spend the rest of their lives in prison without the possibility of parole.
Justin Vance Turner and Shane Pierre Harrison were sentenced to life with minimum non-parole periods of 15 and 13 years respectively for separate murders.
Both had histories of serious offending and the murders constituted second strikes under the three-strikes legislation.
The legislation states that someone who commits murder on their second strike should be sentenced to life without parole, unless that would be manifestly unjust.
Both sentencing judges found that to be the case, and the Court of Appeal has confirmed that.
However, the court did increase Turner's minimum jail term from 15 years to 17 years.
