R v Huntley - [2024] NZHC 182

Sentence for murder and two charges of wounding with intent to cause GBH. Defendant accepted a sentence indication that life imprisonment would be manifestly unjust in his case, and which indicated that an end sentence of 16 years' imprisonment with an MPI of 8 years was appropriate in light of cultural and other reports available. Court considered that life imprisonment would be manifestly unjust weighing the circumstances of the defendant's offending and his age, prospects of rehabilitation and profound social and cultural deprivation. In determining an appropriate end sentence, the Court adopted a starting point of 22 years imprisonment, which it said should be discounted by 20 per cent for the defendant's guilty plea, 25 per cent to reflect his age and rehabilitative prospects, and 15 per cent for the matters raised in his cultural report. However, given that would have led to a finite end sentence of eight years and 10 months, the Court considered it necessary to uplift that sentence to 15 years imprisonment with an MPI of 8 years to reflect the defendant's conviction for murder.