The Supreme Court ruled that Noel Callan is serving a sentence of imprisonment and is eligible, by good conduct, to earn remission under Rule 59 of the Prison Rules 2007. It also declared that the provisions allowing the possibility of greater remission apply to him.
The ruling, delivered by Mr Justice Hardiman on 18 July 2013, concerned Callan’s appeal from a High Court judgment of 15 April 2011. That court had held that he was serving a “commutation”, rather than a sentence of imprisonment. The Supreme Court declaration addresses his status under the Prison Rules; the judgment does not specify how much remission he has earned or order his release.
Callan was sentenced to death in December 1985 after conviction for the capital murder of Garda Sergeant Patrick Morrissey. On 29 May 1986, the President, acting on Government advice under Article 13 of the Constitution, commuted the death sentence to 40 years’ penal servitude. The Criminal Law Act 1997 provided that people serving penal servitude were thereafter to be treated as serving imprisonment.
Callan argued that the 40-year term therefore qualified as a prison sentence under Rule 59, which permits eligible prisoners to earn remission for good conduct. The State’s position changed during the proceedings. Its initial defence described the 40-year period as a sentence and argued that it was intended to be served without remission. After evidence of the Government’s advice and the President’s commutation instrument was produced, the State argued that Callan was serving a commutation, not a sentence. On appeal, it maintained that he was subject to the Prison Rules except for the remission rule.
Hardiman rejected the argument that Callan was “serving a commutation”. He reasoned that the President had changed the original death sentence into a 40-year term of penal servitude, which the 1997 Act treated as imprisonment. The judgment records that the Government’s advice and the commutation instrument did not state that the term was to be served without remission.
The declaration confirms eligibility to earn remission, subject to good conduct, and the application of Rule 59’s provision concerning the possibility of greater remission. It does not set a remission calculation or determine a release date. The judgment also recounts the circumstances of the crime and Callan’s conviction, but the operative declaration concerns his eligibility under the Prison Rules.