Posted on 02/08/2003 7:54:54 AM PST by SJackson
The jury concluded that Charlton was provoked
A former escort girl who killed her lover with an axe at their West Yorkshire home has had her sentenced reduced by the Court of Appeal.
Janet Charlton, 36, was convicted of the manslaughter of 41-year-old Danny O'Brien in her trial at Leeds Crown Court in May 2002.
Charlton, who was not present at the appeal hearing, inflicted at least 20 blows to Mr O'Brien's skull and shoulders with a fireman's axe.
Appeal court judges Mr Justice Jackson and Mr Justice Elias said they thought her five-year jail term for manslaughter was "excessive".
Early release
The decision to cut her sentence to three-and-a-half years could mean Charlton will be released in a few months time.
Her solicitor Carl Kingsley said after the hearing: "It was an excellent result. She will be very pleased. It is a very compassionate sentence."
During her seven week trial, Leeds Crown Court heard how Mr O'Brien was found lying naked, gagged, handcuffed and blindfolded in the bedroom of their house in Midgley, Wakefield, on 23 May 2001.
The 2ft long axe was still sticking out of his head.
Extreme provocation
Judge Norman Jones QC told Charlton that she had committed a "grave offence" which left him no choice but to sentence her for a "significant" number of years.
The jury rejected her claim she had killed Danny O'Brien in self defence after he threatened to kill her three-year-old daughter.
But they concluded that she was provoked through months of sexual demands.
The prosecution had alleged that Charlton killed him in "revenge" because he intended to return to a former girlfriend.
At the appeal hearing it was argued that the trial judge failed to give sufficient credit for points that could be made in mitigation, including her age, previous good character, and the "extreme" provocation.
Her counsel, John Elvidge, said she was a devoted and caring mother who was no risk to the community "or any given individual".
He added that the "unique" case merited a significantly lesser term of imprisonment.
Clara Harris will probably get off in her trial.
Manslaughter? No implied malice? She left the axe sticking out of his head! Where did she get a two-foot axe -- from her cosmetic bag? This is premeditated murder.
"But they concluded that she was provoked through months of sexual demands."
That may be true. After all, wasn't that her job desription? She wasn't married. She could have left. What a joke.
I'm not aware of a case where a U.S. woman was given such a light sentence, but I am aware of this case.
Karla Faye Tucker,
found guilty of murdering a couple with a pick ax in 1983, was executed by lethal injection at a Huntsville, Texas, prison on Feb. 3. Americans debated the ethicality of the death penalty as they anxiously waited to hear if Tucker, who became a born-again Christian while in prison, would be spared at the last minute. The U.S. Supreme Court and Texas Governor George Bush denied her clemency.
... and she won't fell you into plies.
Except, perhaps, Danny O'Brien!
...The only occasions that bestir the police to frenetic activity are when the household interrupts a burglar and resists him. If the burglar is hurt, his victim is invariably charged with assault. In 1999 a farmer who had been repeatedly burglarized and had received little help from the police attempted to scare two burglars he had caught in the act by threatening them with his shotgun. In the ensuing struggle, the gun went off and one of the intruders was killed. The farmer was sentenced to life imprisonment, the sentence later reduced on appeal. But he was refused early release by the parole board on the ground that he was "a danger to burglars." ...
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