Hundreds of life sentences: why the US gives prison sentences that cannot be served

Surely, you have often seen in the news how any criminal in the United States is sentenced to several life sentences or tens of thousands of years in prison. Naturally, he will not be able to physically serve such a term, because he simply will not live, he writes Bigpicture.

Photo: Shutterstock

But why, then, do federal and state laws provide for such restraints?

In the United States, unlike in Russia, there is no imprisonment limit for criminals convicted under multiple counts. Moreover, if a person has committed several crimes at once, the punishments for them are summed up. Thus, some cybercriminals receive periods of several thousand years. But isn't it easier to replace them with the death penalty?

It turns out that it is not easier, because in many US states the death penalty has been abolished, but there is a minimum period after serving which a prisoner can apply for parole (parole). Thanks to this rule, a particularly dangerous criminal can be released ahead of time. But if, according to the verdict, several life sentences are established at once, even having received parole, he will immediately begin to serve the next sentence.

In Oklahoma, for example, there is the so-called 85% rule. According to him, before asking for early release, a prisoner must serve in prison at least 85% of the term. And if its term is several thousand years, there can be no question of any parole.

The longest time frame in history

The term, which fell into the Guinness Book of Records, was received by the rapist Charles Scott Robinson. The jury insisted that the Oklahoma District Judge give the perpetrator 5 years in prison for each proven rape of a child. As a result, Robinson received 30 thousand years of imprisonment with the clarification that all terms must be served sequentially.

In 1996, in the same Oklahoma, Allan Wayne McLaurin was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The man was accused of kidnapping, rape and robbery. McLaurin had an accomplice - Darron Anderson. Back in 750, the offender was sentenced to 1993 years. But Anderson was not satisfied with this sentence, and he asked for a reconsideration of the case.

After re-examining the episodes with the participation of a man, the judge sentenced Darron to 11 thousand years in prison. One of the subsequent appeals of the prisoner led to the fact that he was mowed down for half a millennium.

On the subject: An innocent teenager was jailed for almost 20 years for his love of rock and Stephen King's books

"Killer Clown" John Wayne Gacy is one of the most ruthless maniacs in history. In the 1970s, a man kidnapped, raped and killed 33 young men, for which he received a sentence of 12 death sentences and 21 life sentences. In 1994, one of the sentences was carried out - Gacy was executed by injection.

But such punishments are popular not only in the United States. For example, in 1989 in Thailand, the fraudster Chamoy Thipyaso and her seven accomplices were sentenced to 141 years in prison for large-scale fraud in banking transactions. This case is also listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

But the former influential official in the Palestinian Authority, Abdullah Galeb Al-Barghouti, received 67 life sentences for organizing numerous terrorist attacks against Israelis.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Two immigrants accused of smuggling weapons from the US to Ukraine

Ukrainian from Chicago will pay Delta AirLines $ 1 million for illegal accumulation of miles

California court forces ICE to release hundreds of criminal immigrants

A Ukrainian who drives a truck into a crowd of protesters in Minnesota faces up to 6 years in prison

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.