{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-emergency-provisions-act-1973/section-1",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-emergency-provisions-act-1973/section-1.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/1973/53",
  "legislation_title": "Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-emergency-provisions-act-1973",
  "path": "section/1",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "1",
  "heading": "Punishment for murder.",
  "text": "(1) No person shall suffer death for murder and a person convicted of murder shall, subject to Article 45(2) of the Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 (detention of children at Secretary of State’s pleasure), be sentenced to imprisonment for life.\n(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\n(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\n(4) For the purpose of any proceedings on or subsequent to a person’s trial on a charge of capital murder, that charge and any plea or finding of guilty of capital murder shall be treated as being or having been a charge, or a plea or finding of guilty, of murder only; and if at the commencement of this Act a person is under a sentence of death for capital murder, the sentence shall have effect as a sentence of imprisonment for life.\n(5) In this section “capital murder” means a murder which immediately before the commencement of this Act is a capital murder within the meaning of section 10 of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1966.",
  "extent": "N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words in s. 1(1)(3) substituted (31.1.1999) by S.I. 1998/1504 (N.I. 9), art. 65(1), Sch. 5 para. 6; S.R. 1999/25, art. 2"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "S. 1(2)(3) repealed (8.10.2001) by S.I. 2001/2564 (N.I. 2), art. 13(2), Sch. 3; S.R. 2001/337, art. 2"
    },
    {
      "type": "M",
      "label": "M1",
      "text": "1966 c. 20 (N.I.)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/53/section/1",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T10:46:50.785666+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}