There is a good case for opposing tough mandatory sentences merely on moral grounds.
Mr Gray said mandatory sentences for carrying a knife would be part of the Labour manifesto for the next Holyrood election.
Justice minister David Ford was also opposed to mandatory sentences.
BBC: Sentencing for crimes against older and vulnerable people
Justice campaigners said they were concerned about the proposals, revealed a day after Mr Clarke told MPs that judges should have discretion over sentencing and said mandatory sentences were not the British way.
The UUP's Ross Hussey was concerned about the challenge to the independence of the judiciary represented by mandatory sentences, whilst Alban Maginness of the SDLP said he did not believe this was a good way of approaching sentencing.
BBC: Sentencing for crimes against older and vulnerable people
But Horner believes the first priority should be reforming the laws on mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes.
One answer is for states and federal authorities to review other crimes for which mandatory minimum sentences are too stringent.
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Bary, for one, could be sentenced to 269 mandatory life sentences if convicted on murder charges tied with the blasts.
However Ms Grahame said the first part of the bill referring to non-mandatory life sentences was "overly complicated and one big headache".
Many states have mandatory minimum sentences, which remove judges' discretion to show mercy, even when the circumstances of a case cry out for it.
This was Jenna Bush's second alcohol-related offence in just over a month in a state that imposes mandatory prison sentences for a third offence.
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The U.S. Sentencing Commission has been pushing Congress for more than a decade to change the law that created mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine.
The bill is in two parts, the first being to amend the rules about the punishment part of non-mandatory life sentences imposed in criminal cases.
Mandatory life sentences for murder in England and Wales and the system for setting minimum terms are unjust and outdated, a legal experts' group says.
The police superintendent called for mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes.
The bill would allow federal judges to bypass federal mandatory minimum sentences if the sentence is too lengthy or if it simply does not fit the crime.
The bill aims to restore to the judiciary the ability to bring in non mandatory life sentences and at the same time impose the punishment part of the sentence.
The Justice Secretary Ken Clarke recently announced plans to extend mandatory life sentences for many other crimes as part of a plan to do away with indeterminate sentences.
On July 30th he announced plans to extend mandatory life sentences to second-time serious violent or sexual offenders, enormously expanding the number of tariff and parole decisions he will have to make.
The bill creates mandatory life sentences for anyone who murders certain first responders, a provision that comes after two firefighters were killed in an ambush as they battled a blaze in upstate New York.
Mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences, for example, have been a double disaster, diverting a lot of money from the war on serious crime and turning huge numbers of minor miscreants into hardened criminals.
Mr McCarthy also made an emotional plea for mandatory minimum prison sentences for possession of an illegal firearm.
BBC: Kenneth Williams (left) and Michael Ward booking photos
This syllogism gave America Prohibition, mandatory-minimum sentences, the sentencing disparity between convictions for crack and powder cocaine, and that great guarantee of everyone's security, shoe removal at airports.
That, combined with mandatory five-year sentences for gun criminals, has convinced many that the credibility won by a firearm is not worth the risk.
Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker said the presumption against prison sentences of three months or less and the rejection of mandatory six-month jail terms for anyone caught carrying a knife meant his party could not support the "flawed legislation".
He has been working part time at Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a non-profit group that promotes legislation to reduce harsh prison sentences for non-violent offenders.
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She also reaffirmed the government's intention to strengthen weapons possession laws, including a mandatory custodial sentence for offenders caught carrying a knife, and announced a lengthening of prison sentences for supplying guns to gang members and a new offence of possessing an illegal firearm with intent to supply.
When the Supreme Court struck down mandatory sentencing guidelines in 2005, added Wisenberg, it granted judges a great deal of discretion in issuing sentences.
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