Why are death row sentences so long?

0 votes
asked Aug 7, 2022 in Law/Ethics by Rogowski (580 points)
Why are death row sentences so long?

1 Answer

0 votes
answered Aug 18, 2022 by wremchscrew (6,720 points)
Death row sentences are so long because of the appeals and the fact that a person on death row could be innocent and new information could come to light in the years up to the execution.

Sometimes it's possible for the inmate to get out of the death penalty even when guilty of the crime they committed and sometimes the death sentence can be changed to life in prison.

The average prison stay in death row is between 11 years to 20 to 25 years before execution actually happens.

During that time the death row inmate stays in a prison cell for 23 hours per day without any social interaction and food and drink is brought too the inmate.

The death row inmate can get outside in a cage for an hour a day but the remaining time they must stay in the prison cell.

It's cheaper to imprison someone for the rest of their lives instead of executing the person.

Although it may seem cheaper to execute the person it's actually more expensive to execute someone than to simply keep that person locked away in prison for the rest of their lives.

Some of the reasons for the high cost of the death penalty are the longer trials and appeals required when a person's life is on the line, the need for more lawyers and experts on both sides of the case, and the relative rarity of executions.

100 years to life sentences in prison means that the person or inmate in prison must serve at least 100 years in prison before they are eligible for parole.

So basically that 100 years to life means the inmate will never leave prison since most people never live to 100 years.

The 100 years to life prison sentence ensures the inmate will never leave prison or walk free again.

When you're sentenced to life in prison you get sentenced to spending the rest of your life in prison which means if you are age 20 when sentenced to life in prison then depending on how long you live you may for example get 60 years in prison if you die at age 80.

However some life sentences have the possibility of parole but you would have to serve at least 25 years before being eligible for parole but you still may not get out of prison.

If you serve 2 life sentences then you would have to serve at least 50 years before being eligible for parole and still could stay in prison for the rest of your life.

A mandatory life sentence in prison is when a person is to remain in prison for the rest of their lives.

That means that if the mandatory life sentence was a life sentence without parole then the person will stay in prison from the day the person arrives at prison until the day the person dies in prison.

A life sentence without parole means you have no chance of ever living prison until you die and are carried out in a body bag or coffin.

However some life sentences have the possibility of parole after around 25 years.

If the person was sentenced to a mandatory life in prison sentence with the possibility of parole then the person would have to stay in prison for at least 25 years before they come up for parole.

Then a parole board will decide on whether to parole you and release you from prison or they may decide to deny parole and keep you in prison.

Life in prison even with possibility of parole can still mean you stay in prison for the rest of your life.

Although with life with parole you at least have a chance of maybe getting out of prison but with a life without parole you will never leave prison.

Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term.

In the United States, people serving a life sentence with parole are eligible for parole after 25 years.

If they are serving two consecutive life sentences, it means they have to wait at least 50 years to be considered for parole.

In some jurisdictions, a "life" sentence is a misnomer in that it can come with the possibility of parole.

Depending on the state's law, a defendant may be eligible for parole after a set number of years, like 20, 25, or 40.

A defendant who has served the minimum sentence can apply to a parole board for release.

Any prisoner's sentence can be commuted by the governor, but that's true regardless of how long it is.

The extra 400 years doesn't limit the governor's power.

If these impossibly long sentences make any sense, it's because they make clear that a defendant has been given a separate sentence for each of his crimes.

Many U.S. states can release a convict on parole after a decade or more has passed, but in California, people sentenced to life imprisonment can normally apply for parole after seven years.

A sentence of “natural life” means that there are no parole hearings, no credit for time served, no possibility of release.

Short of a successful appeal or an executive pardon, such a sentence means that the convicted will, in no uncertain terms, die behind bars.

98,443 questions

94,708 answers

1,269 comments

6,992,412 users

...