I’ve heard accounts of prisoners being sentenced to consecutive life sentences. Regardless of the number of life sentences, the person will still be serving for the one life they’ve got, right?. Are there different legal implications behind multiple sentences?
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Yes. You might be pardoned for one, but there’s still another. You can ask for parole for one, but there’s still another. You might challenge the court to overturn one of the sentence, but there’s still another.
They get a sentence for every person they murdered. So even if they get one case dropped, they still have to answer for the others. But there is a measure of justice handed down for each victim, barring any sort of plea bargains, lack of evidence for one or two crimes, etc…
Doesn’t it also extend the time before they’re eligible for parole?
A life sentence doesn’t necessarily mean you will be in prison until you die. It may be a 30-40 year sentence but may drop to as little as 25 years with good behavior.
Imagine a person kills 2 people and is convicted. The judge can issue the sentences to be served concurrently or if the crime was especially grizzly consecutively.
Concurrently – the person would serve both sentences at the same time and could possibly be out of prison as soon as 25 years.
Consecutively – the person would have to complete one life sentence before serving the other.
But even then someone who is serving multiple consecutive sentences might not die in prison. Most states have programs whereby once a prisoner’s health becomes fragile enough from aging or other medical conditions that they are no longer a threat, they may be released to a nursing home.
In most states a “life” sentence isn’t actually the rest of your life, its a set amount of time like 30 years. You could be eligible for parol in ~18yrs. Even “life without parole” would just be the full 30.
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For one thing, its a matter of principle that if someone is convicted for a crime, they have to be given a sentence for it.
Now, prosecutors will sometimes decide to drop lesser charges to pursue higher ones, but that all gets settled before trial starts. So if a guy breaks into a house and murders someone, the prosecutors very well might focus on the murder charge and not the breaking and entering. If they get him for murder, it doesn’t matter whether or not he goes away for an extra 6 months or year for B&E. It might mean holding another trial for a guy who is never getting out anyway.
But also, life sentences don’t mean prison for life. After all, if it did, then there would be no need to distinguish between a life sentence and a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Different states and countries have different standards but in many, a life sentence can mean a term of 20 or 25 years before one is eligible for parole. In fact, a life sentence is better understood as an “as much as life sentence”.
So in sentencing someone to consecutive life sentences, you ensure that they will be in prison more or less until they die, regardless of how good their behavior in prison is. They could serve 20 years on a life sentence and get parole (though if you have multiple life sentences you probably wouldn’t bother to go through the parole process on one of them), and they’re still on the hook for another.
Parole. Even with a life sentence, it is still possible to apply for a receive parole after some period of time. Say 25 years.
So if the sentence were applied concurrently, the person who killed 4 people could be on the streets after 25 years.
By applying the sentence consecutively, the person would be not be eligible for parole until they had served 100 years.
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