A percentage discount on an indeterminate (life) sentence is not meaningful; instead, a plea of guilty or assistance to authorities may reduce a life sentence to a determinate sentence. Once those factors have been used to effect that reduction, they cannot be used again to further reduce the determinate sentence ('double dipping'). However, Greg James J left open the possibility that if the sentencing process is conducted as one coherent process rather than in discrete stages, the plea and assistance may be considered in fixing the length of the determinate sentence without double dipping. Contract killings of witnesses in criminal prosecutions fall within the worst category of murder and conspiracy to murder. A sentencing judge need not use the precise verbal formula of s 61 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999.
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