The eighteen-year-old schoolboy who, in March, killed two female teachers with an axe for life Thursday brought to life imprisonment. He is the youngest person in the modern history of the Scandinavian country to receive this punishment.
The young man was arrested shortly after the attack on the Malmö Latin School, a creative arts high school with more than 1,000 students in the southern Swedish city of Malmö. Of the teenager’s “particularly brutal” actions, the judge said: “These are two very brutal killings in which the victims suffered so much and suffered so much.” The court was unable to establish a clear motive.
The man pleaded guilty. He told the court that he felt he had no place in society and that he believed he would die in the attack. Psychological examinations showed that he suffers from a type of autism, but according to the court he was not suffering from a serious mental disorder.
Ellison’s attorney has defended a reduced sentence due to his client’s mental health issues and will appeal. He had previously said that the fact that Ellison was not allowed to serve in the military played a role. He reportedly failed an accompanying psychological test.
The law under which young people used to receive reduced sentences for serious crimes has been amended before. Life sentences in Sweden technically do not have an expiration date, but after ten years a convicted person can request a commutation of their sentence. This is often honoured, which means, according to the Swedish Prison Service, that life imprisonment in practice averages up to sixteen years in prison.
