I just heard on the TV that someone got life in prison plus 47 years. I never understood this. Life in prison is life in prison so what does this mean when they get additional time on top of life in prison?
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Let’s say someone gets convicted of kidnapping and murder. They get life in prison for the murder and 10 years for kidnapping.
5 years later, DNA evidence proves that the defendant couldn’t have possibly killed the victim, but the fact that the defendant kidnapped the victim is still definitely true.
The life sentence can get overturned, but that prisoner would still have to serve out the last 5 years of the kidnapping sentence.
Edit: Just to be clear, I completely made this example up. The crimes and their punishments were arbitrary, I was just trying to get across why there are different sentences for one criminal.
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