Cooperation with authorities, an early guilty plea, and genuine remorse can justify a co-offender who physically committed a murder with murderous intent receiving a shorter sentence than the instigator who lacked murderous intent but manipulated the co-offender and maintained false positions throughout proceedings. The parity principle requires only that the sentencing differentiation be 'reasonably open' to the sentencing judge, not that the appellate court would have imposed the same differential. Statutory murder under s 3A of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) is not inherently less serious than common law murder.
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