Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
(1) Imprisonment for life means imprisonment for the whole of the natural life. However, the sentence of all prisoners sentenced to imprisonment for life shall, for the limited purpose of calculation of the notional date of release, be deemed to be a sentence of imprisonment for twenty years: Provided that if the trial court, or as the case may be the appellate court, has specifically ordered that imprisonment for life shall be for the remainder of the natural life of the prisoner, no remission shall be given to such prisoner. (2) If a sentence of death is commuted to one of imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for a term, the sentence of imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term shall be deemed to commence from the date on which the sentence of death was passed. Period to be excluded from sentence.