Introduction
In June 2015 Sharon Edwards (42) got married to David Edwards (51) in Las Vegas. Two months later he was dead – stabbed in the chest – the culmination of a prolonged period of domestic violence.
On 8th March 2016, Ms Edwards was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a tariff of 20 years.
They had met a year before. Ms Edwards was ‘domineering’ and ‘bullying’. She had punched him and given him a black eye before their wedding, for which they had to make excuses (and use makeup) on the big day.
It seems that the trigger for the killing was Mr Edwards losing his job – something that made Ms Edwards furious – it seems that she liked the idea of being a solicitor’s wife.
Sentence
The only sentence for murder is life imprisonment (see here for our fact sheet on sentencing for murder) – the question always is the tariff – the minimum period to be served before the defendant could go before the Parole Board and apply to be released.
Here, the starting point is 15 years. It’s not clear why the tariff was increased by so much. The previous violence from Ms Edwards would account for some, but probably not all, of that.
We will look again if the Sentencing Remarks are published (always useful if they are) but we would expect an appeal against the sentence. On the face of it, the sentence would seem a bit too high.