Shannon Ian Clifford v The Queen - SC 89/2011

Criminal – Sentence – Increase of sentence – Sentencing guideline judgments – Sentencing Act 2002, s 9(3) – Whether Court of Appeal, in assessing appellant’s sentence, appropriately increased it from 5 to 7 years after considering courts’ approach to sentencing in light of the Supreme Court’s Hessell decision – Whether Court of Appeal in affirming s 9(3)’s prohibition on treating intoxication as mitigating has effectively held that lack of mens rea, if induced by voluntary consumption of intoxicants, can never be a mitigating factor; and whether this is correct in principle – Status of lack of mens rea partially induced by intoxicants – Status of guideline judgments in the wake of Supreme Court’s decision in Hessell  [2011] NZCA 360 CA 88/2011