Article 53: Reduction of life imprisonment

Décisions de la Cour suprême interprétant cette section

1. Arrêt de la Cour suprême n° 875/2568 (2025)

   Where a mitigating reduction applies to imprisonment for life, Section 53 treats the life term as fifty years for the purpose of that reduction.

   In a methamphetamine case a defendant faced imprisonment for life; the mitigating reduction for confession was applied under Section 78 together with Section 53, which for reduction purposes treats the life term as fifty years.

2. Arrêt de la Cour suprême n° 434/2568 (2025)

   Where a local official commits a narcotics offence, section 10 of the Measures for the Suppression of Narcotics Offenders Act B.E. 2534 trebles the punishment and section 12 caps the term of imprisonment at fifty years, while section 180 of the Narcotics Code trebles it with no cap. Each law is partly favourable and partly not, so under Section 3 the court applies whichever part of each is favourable to the offender. Section 53 had done that work in the judgment under review, where imprisonment for life was converted under it before the one third reduction under Section 78, leaving thirty three years and four months. Re-fixing the punishment, the Supreme Court reached the same term without Section 53, taking fifty years from the cap in section 12 and then reducing by one third.

   A local official was convicted of a serious narcotics offence. The Supreme Court took the point of its own motion as one of public order and re-determined the sentence under Section 3: the Narcotics Code's penalty as trebled by section 180 was the more favourable, while the fifty-year cap in section 12 of the Act of B.E. 2534 was more favourable than the Narcotics Code, which has none. It imposed fifty years and a fine of 3,000,000 baht, reduced by one third under Section 78 for the confession, leaving thirty-three years and four months. The fifty years came from that statutory cap, not from the conversion of imprisonment for life under Section 53.

3. Arrêt de la Cour suprême n° 5681/2568 (2025)

   Under Section 53 the life term counts as fifty years, so a one-half mitigation reduction leaves twenty-five years.

   For raping a child under fifteen while armed with a firearm the defendant received imprisonment for life. Under Section 53 the life term counted as fifty years, and a one-half reduction for confession under Section 78 left twenty-five years.

Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.