Three strikes law

Update: On 22 April 2024 the Government confirmed details of its intention to reinstate the three strikes sentencing law, with modifications to make the regime more workable.

Read the press release here(external link)

The new regime will:

cover the same 40 serious violent and sexual offences as the former legislation, with the addition of the new strangulation and suffocation offence;
introduce a new requirement that the three strikes law will only apply to sentences above 24 months;
extend the use of the “manifestly unjust” exception to allow some judicial discretion to avoid very harsh outcomes and address outlier cases;
provide a limited benefit for guilty pleas to avoid re-traumatisation of victims, and to improve court delays; and
see that people who commit murder at second or third strike receive an appropriately lengthy non-parole period.

The Government intends to introduce legislation to reinstate the three strikes sentencing law, with modifications, by the end of June 2024.

A package of related documents, including the Cabinet Paper and Regulatory Impact Statement, will be proactively released in May 2024.

Three Strikes Legislation Repeal Act 2022

The previous Government passed the Three Strikes Legislation Repeal Act 2022, which repealed the mandatory sentencing regime commonly known as the three strikes law.

The Sentencing and Parole Reform Act 2010 introduced the former three strikes law. The law was intended to deter repeat offenders with the threat of progressively longer mandatory prison terms, and to penalise those who continued to re-offend through a three-stage process.

Concerns around the former three strikes law included:

there was little evidence that the law had reduced serious offending;
it restricted the judiciary’s ability to consider the individual circumstances and context of the offending when determining sentences;
Māori are overrepresented in the group of offenders who have received a strike;
the High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court had found sentences imposed under the regime contravened the Bill of Rights Act; and
the Courts can already impose sentences equivalent to those under the three strikes law, when it is considered appropriate.

The repeal did not apply to people who were sentenced under the three strikes law. This means that offenders who have been sentenced under the law will serve out their sentences as originally imposed.

How the former three strikes regime worked

There were 40 qualifying three strike offences, comprising almost all major violent and sexual offences with a maximum penalty of seven years or greater imprisonment.

If an offender was convicted of a strike offence (with no previous strike warnings), they received an official first ‘strike’ warning.

If the offender was convicted of a second qualifying offence, they were given a final warning (second strike), and if they were sentenced to imprisonment, they had to serve the full sentence without parole.

If the offender was then convicted of a third qualifying offence the court was required to impose the maximum applicable penalty without parole, unless the court considered it would have been manifestly unjust to do so.

Finally, if the offender was convicted of murder on their second or third strike the court was required to impose a life sentence without parole, unless the court considered such a sentence would have been manifestly unjust.

Information about the Three Strikes Legislation Repeal Bill

Read the Three Strikes Legislation Repeal Act 2022(external link)

Read about how the Bill was passed into law(external link)