European Court of Human Rights Decision on Felon Disenfranchisement

Kieran Williams writes:

As you may have heard, the European Court of Human Rights has issued an important Grand Chamber judgement regarding felons' voting rights, in Hirst v United Kingdom (II). Here is a link to a detailed press release.

The decision upholds an earlier panel judgement that disenfranchisement is permissible only if there is a clear, direct connection to the crime for which the prisoner was convicted (such as electoral fraud or abuse of office), and should be left to judicial discretion as an aspect of sentencing. It will thus force a dozen European states to move to the narrowly tailored disenfranchisement found in countries such as Germany.

Posted by Rick Hasen at October 7, 2005 10:18 AM