Legal battles begin after B.C. judge rules 25-year sentences for first-degree murder are unconstitutional

The sentence for first-degree murder – 25 years in jail without the chance of parole – faces a legal reckoning after a judge in British Columbia this week ruled the law’s inflexibility violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.The B.C. Supreme Court ruling from Justice David Crossin, published Wednesday, reopens a national debate and potentially sparks a years-long legal odyssey over one of the country’s longest-standing mandatory minimum criminal punishments.