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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Usually life plus X means the same thing as life, at least in practice, but there are exceptions.
Ok, imagine you were convicted of murder and robbery, and you got a life sentence for the murder and 50 years for the robbery. If you’re in a system where life means no chance of parole, it doesn’t make much difference to you. If you’re in a system where there is a chance of parole, you might have to serve x% of your time before you can be paroled — so maybe with the murder charge you might be eligible for parole in 20 years, but you are in a place where you actually have to serve half your sentence before parole. Because of the 50 year add-on, you have to wait 25 years for parole instead of 20. Is it 25 more years on top of the 20, or 25 total, so just 5 more years? That depends on where you are and the specifics of your sentence.
Now imagine you’re convicted for murder and robbery, life plus 50, but then suddenly the supreme court overturns your murder sentence! Well great, but you still have the 50 years of your robbery sentence to serve.
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