All posts tagged: Mandatory

Pennsylvania Court Upends Mandatory Use of Life-Without-Parole for Second-Degree Murder

Pennsylvania Court Upends Mandatory Use of Life-Without-Parole for Second-Degree Murder

Published by Sam Flores

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s high court on Thursday overturned the use of automatic life sentences without parole for people convicted of second-degree murder, saying it violates the state’s constitutional ban on cruel punishment when imposed without a closer look at the defendant’s specific role and culpability. The court majority ordered resentencing in the case of Derek Lee, convicted of a 2014 killing in Pittsburgh, but the decision also has implications for others among the roughly 1,000 other inmates currently serving similar second-degree murder sentences. The court’s order was put on hold for four months to give the state’s politically divided Legislature time to “consider appropriate remedial measures.” In a footnote, the justices said they were ruling on Lee’s sentence and not addressing “questions of retroactivity.” Prison reform groups hailed it as a landmark decision, while the Allegheny County district attorney’s office said it will follow the court’s order. Pennsylvania law has made people liable for second-degree murder if they participated in an eligible felony that led to death, and life without parole has been …

Islamic charity: ‘Mandatory for wives to do housework and serve’

Islamic charity: ‘Mandatory for wives to do housework and serve’

Published by Sam Flores

A newly registered Islamic charity has been given “advice and guidance” by the regulator after a preacher claimed a woman must do “anything” her husband “commands” as long as it does not break religious codes. In October, the National Secular Society raised concerns about Hatch End Islamic Centre, which is based in Harrow and registered under the charitable purpose ‘the advancement of religion’. In a sermon on marriage uploaded on the charity’s YouTube channel, preacher Ahmed Shah claimed “anything that the man commands his wife, she has to do unless it goes against Sharia law”. It is “mandatory for her to do the housework and to serve him”, he adds. The charity removed all of its YouTube content following the NSS’s complaint. By law, charities must act for the public benefit. The video appeared to show young men in the audience. Earlier this month, the Government’s social cohesion strategy promised to strengthen the Charity Commission’s powers to “tackle extremist abuse” by “extending its ability to suspend trustees and shut down charities”. “Women have to do …

Why We Need a Formal, Mandatory, and Remunerated “Citizen Lobby”

Why We Need a Formal, Mandatory, and Remunerated “Citizen Lobby”

Published by Jenni Sidey

At the end of the twentieth century, the end of the Cold War suggested that freedom and democracy were the name of the game. The launch of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s promised a free flow of information and knowledge as well as borderless access to people across the connected world. Democracy was now likely to become more than a system operated by an elite on behalf of “the people,” becoming instead something the people themselves could actively take part in—beyond merely being the smallest denominator of the electorate. The new millennium has, nevertheless, brought a number of counter-developments. Neither the East–West nor the North–South global dialogues have delivered the long-term socioeconomic stability hoped for. Trade, energy, and political interests—combined with various forms of fundamentalism—have contributed to a renewed arms race that many believed had ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. Alongside—and perhaps contributing to—these developments, there has been a post-1989 trend toward political neoliberalism. This ideology argues that ultimate freedom of choice will liberate us from …

Survey shows more support for mandatory death penalty for trafficking significant amount of drugs: Shanmugam

Survey shows more support for mandatory death penalty for trafficking significant amount of drugs: Shanmugam

Published by Sam Flores

PUBLIC SUPPORT Singapore’s approach focuses on harm prevention and policy is anchored on enforcement, education and rehabilitation.  The country has a tough framework of laws and robust enforcement, and invests heavily in upstream preventive education.  Mr Shanmugam highlighted the Drug Victims Remembrance Day introduced in 2024, which is observed every third Friday of May, to remember the people who have been victimised by drugs. On rehabilitation, he said the approach differs for drug traffickers and drug abusers. While Singapore is tough on the former, drug abusers who have not committed any other criminal offence will receive treatment and rehabilitation without a criminal record. “We invest very heavily in our rehabilitation programmes, to help them break the cycle of addiction, and to give them a helping hand to move on with life,” he said. Even with the attitudes towards drugs becoming more tolerant globally, it is a different picture in Singapore.  Citing the results of the 2025 National Drug Perception Survey, Mr Shanmugam said nearly 93 per cent of youth respondents and more than 96 per …

Macron calls for ‘mandatory electoral bans’ for people guilty of anti-Semitic or racist acts

Macron calls for ‘mandatory electoral bans’ for people guilty of anti-Semitic or racist acts

Published by Sam Flores

French President Emmanuel Macron Friday denounced what he described as an “anti-Semitic hydra” that had crept into “every crack” of society as he commemorated Ilan Halimi, a French Jewish man tortured to death in 2006. In a crime that horrified France two decades ago, Halimi was kidnapped by a gang of around 20 young people in January 2006 and tortured in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux. Found more than three weeks later after the kidnappers had failed to extort a ransom payment from his family, the 23-year-old died on the way to hospital. Prosecutors at the time described the 28-year-old gang leader Youssouf Fofana as a “perverted megalomaniac” who instructed accomplices to target Jews for ransom kidnappings “because they are loaded with dough”. “In 20 years, and despite the resolute efforts of our police officers, gendarmes, judges, teachers and elected officials, the anti-Semitic hydra has kept advancing,” Macron said. “Constantly assuming new faces, it has insinuated itself into the heart of our societies, into every crevice, too often accompanied by that …

Politics Home Article | Government Considers Watering Down Mandatory Element Of Digital ID

Politics Home Article | Government Considers Watering Down Mandatory Element Of Digital ID

Published by Sam Flores

There is a strong wish within the PLP for the scheme to be introduced as non-mandatory (Alamy) 4 min read53 min Exclusive: There are discussions within government about introducing a key part of the digital ID scheme as optional, rather than as mandatory, PoliticsHome understands. It comes as ministers try to build public support for the scheme after recent opinion polls suggested that the proposal had become less popular since the scheme was announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in September. The government has previously said that the planned digital ID will be mandatory for Right to Work checks from 2029. This is the only element for which use will be mandatory, with other uses to be available to the public voluntarily.  However, sources familiar with internal discussions have told PoliticsHome that one change under consideration within government is introducing the Right To Work element of the scheme as optional in 2029, before potentially making it mandatory later down the line. PoliticsHome understands there is a belief among many Labour MPs that pushing ahead with digital ID in its current form would …