The judges described mandatory minimum sentences as wrong in principle, particularly given it wasn’t open to courts to consider sentencing options outside of jail.
They required judges to be instruments of injustice, imprisoning people when not warranted, and inflicting more severe punishment than a proper application of a sentencing principle could justify.
“This blunt, oppressive sentencing regime is contrary to the public interest and incompatible with modern sentencing jurisprudence,” they said in a judgment published on Thursday.
Victorian appeal judges have derided the state’s mandatory sentencing laws, saying they force them to be “instruments of injustice”.
Source: Victorian sentencing laws force ‘injustice’ say judges