Minimum sentence and reduction for confession

Justices: Webster, Matheson, Bull, Østensen Berglund, Steinsvik

The penalty for violation of section 233 subsection 1 of the Penal Code 1902 and a number of serious offences, including attempted homicide, fraud, attempted robbery and rape, was preventive detention of 20 years and a minimum time of 12 years, see section 39e of the Penal Code 1902. The criminal offences had been committed partially before and partially after the amendment of 9 January 2015 – not just offences that according to their nature could trigger preventive detention. The aggregate alternative prison sentence for these offences would have been around 18 years. Then a minimum sentence of up to 14 years could be stipulated. The minimum sentence was stipulated to 12 years – two thirds of the alternative prison sentence for the relevant offences. The convicted person had confessed to certain offences. The Supreme Court stated that a deduction in that case had to be based on the part of the aggregate sentence that was actually given for the confessed acts. The deduction would thus have been so small that granting it would have been pointless. A deduction also had to be granted for lengthy proceedings although the sentence, if had been measured without consideration for the maximum penalties in the law, would have exceeded the maximum penalty. Specifically, however, there was no basis for granting a reduction based on lengthy proceedings.