Depending on where you are in the world and what you think of the law, prison is supposed to be a punishment, a deterrent, or a rehabilitation. Sometimes it can do all three, sometimes only one, and then only barely. It seems to depend on the sentence and the prisoner in many cases. But beyond that, there are a few cases where prison is used as a dramatic statement, often political or perhaps simply moral. In these cases, a sentence is handed down that seems less about what it means to the person receiving it than what it might mean to society as a whole. Some of these can be incredibly long.
10. 141,000 years of fraud
Hitting the Guinness Book of Records seems funny, but not because he got the longest prison sentence in history, as happened to Chama Tipyaso. The Thai business executive was found guilty of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of people. Because of her position in the oil industry and the fact that her husband was a high-ranking military official, people thought her potential investment opportunity was military-backed and growing, so more than 16,000 people invested 204 million dollars Even members of the Thai royal family were deceived.
At the end of the trial, Tipyaso was found guilty and sentenced to 141,078 years in prison. Pretty cool, right? But here’s the thing. Under Thai law, the same year she was convicted, a law passed that set the maximum sentence for fraud at 20 years. So the dramatic sentence was essentially just for show and couldn’t really be upheld. Even more egregious was the fact that she only served 8 of the potential 20 years.
9. Terry Nichols received 161 life sentences
Many people are sentenced by American courts to life imprisonment, which is a rather blunt term with no particular meaning, and depends very much on when and how parole may be offered. Is the life of an 18-year-old the same as the life of a 90-year-old? And is it the same from state to state? The answer is no. For example, in Georgia a person sentenced to life in prison before July 1, 2006, may be eligible for parole after 14 years. But 30 years have passed since that date. So 30 years is a life sentence? In many states, it actually 15 years before parole can be granted.
To get around this pesky parole issue, judges in the US can hand down consecutive sentences for crimes, which is why criminals can end up serving eternity and then multiple stints behind bars. Take, for example, Terry Nichols , convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing. He was sentenced 161 consecutive sentences , one life sentence without parole for each of the people killed in his attack. This was after the death penalty was abolished.
8. James Holmes received 12 life sentences plus 3,318 years
James Holmes is a mass murderer who killed 12 people in Aurora, Colorado in 2012 and injured 70 others. He was given 12 life sentences, one for each person he killed, but the judge never finished. Since his intent was to kill everyone, all the people he injured were attempted murders. And for that, along with charges related to the explosives he used to set up his own home, he was sentenced to additional 3318 years of imprisonment .
This sentence is 48 years old plus five years of supervised release for each of the attempted murders, plus 96 years for the second-degree murders and six years for the explosives charges.
Holmes was nearly sentenced to death, but one juror disagreed, finding mental health issues a mitigating factor, while two others were on the fence. In the end, Holmes would never see the light of day again as a free man.
7. Bomber Abdullah Barghouti received 67 life sentences plus 5,200 years
Terrorist attacks often carry longer sentences for perpetrators than nearly identical crimes that are not considered terrorist attacks. Abdullah al-Barghouthi was arrested for his involvement with Hamas, including reviving its armed wing, which made bombs. He was taken into custody by Israeli forces and charged with seven different terrorist attacks.
Following a military trial in 2004, Al-Barghouti was sentenced to 67 life sentences as a result of the 67 deaths and nearly 500 injuries he was said to have caused. He was also given an additional 5,200 years.
In 2011, it was reported that he had served his entire sentence up to this point in solitary confinement without visitors.
6. Several people have been sentenced to more than 1,000 years in prison for drug trafficking.
When it comes to serious crimes like terrorism, murder, and rape, it can be a lot easier to understand the outrage behind some of these more dramatic convictions. But that’s not exactly what happened to Bentura Flores when he was convicted of human trafficking in 1973.
Of course, disproportionate drug sentences are nothing new, and there are ongoing efforts to free people serving marijuana sentences, since the drug is now legal in many states. But Flores was charged with trafficking heroin, which, while a far more dangerous drug, still seems questionable since the man sold it for only 10 dollars .
Despite the minor nature of the offense, Flores was sentenced to 1800 years imprisonment.
In Oklahoma, Larry D. Kiel received 2,501 years for drug trafficking when he was sentenced back in 1992. Part of that sentence included 250 years for possession of a controlled substance without a tax stamp and an additional 250 years for maintaining a vehicle in which a controlled substance is stored.
5. Gary Ridgway received 48 life sentences plus almost 500 years
There are no good serial killers, but some are definitely worse than others. In the United States, Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, is considered the most prolific serial killer in history. He pleaded guilty to 48 murders back in 2003, although he claimed to have killed around 80 people. His confession was part of a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty.
Judge sentences Ridgeway to 48 life sentences without the possibility of parole for each of the murders, to be served consecutively. The judge also added additional 10 years for the case for falsifying evidence, adding 480 years to the overall sentence.
In 2011 was installed 49th victim Ridgway also confessed to the murder and was given an additional life sentence.
4. Brenton Tarrant received 51 life sentences for the Christchurch mosque attack.
In 2019, Brenton Tarrant attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand,killed 51 people and wounded dozens more. At trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole. This may seem insignificant to those in the United States, who are often given life sentences, but in New Zealand, a life sentence, a true life sentence, where the defendant will never be released again, has never been handed down before. Tarrant received the harshest sentence in the country's history.
The full sentence, however, was not technically just life in prison for Tarrant. In the judge's ruling, he instead sentenced Tarrant to life in prison for each of the 51 murder victims . The judge did not say they were concurrent. He was also given 12 years for each of the 40 attempted murder convictions, although these were to be served concurrently rather than consecutively. He was then given an additional life sentence for committing a terrorist act. So he is effectively serving 52 life sentences.
3. Darren Bennalford Anderson lived to be over 11,000 years old
Darron Bennalford Anderson may have had one of the worst lawyers in American history to explain his prison sentence. Anderson was tried along with accomplice Allen Wayne McLaurin for rape back in 1996. The two men were given dramatic sentences, with McLaurin taking the brunt of the 20,750 years He was sentenced to 13 consecutive convictions, and while he is eligible for parole, it will only come after the minimum term of each sentence, which his lawyers point out means he will not be eligible for parole until 2191, when he will be 224 years old.
Anderson, unlike his partner, started with a relatively light sentence of just 2200 years But perhaps his lawyers convinced him that the sentence was unfair, even despite the huge sentence handed down to his partner, so Anderson appealed. Things did not go well.
On appeal, the judge agreed that Anderson had been sentenced incorrectly. Instead of 2,200 years, Anderson was given 1,750 years for kidnapping, 2,000 years for each of two counts of first-degree rape, 2,000 years for two more counts, 500 years for robbery, and 500 years for grand larceny. He managed to add just over 9000 years to his sentence, a total of 11,250 years.
2. Three men accused of bombing a train in Madrid in 2004 were given 30,000 years each
In 2004, a series of explosions in Madrid killed 191 people and about 2,000 more were injured. Ten bombs, hidden in backpacks, were hidden on four different commuter trains. There was a vast conspiracy behind the attacks, and several terrorist groups were suspected of involvement, although this was never confirmed during the investigation.
Some of the culprits received relatively light sentences, roughly speaking, only 23 years old , and some were even acquitted. But not everyone got off so lightly. Three men found guilty of supplying explosives were sentenced to thousands of years apiece. One got almost 43,000 years , the other 35,000 years old.
Unfortunately, these were also sentences for show, as Spanish law does not allow such sentences to be carried out. The maximum term for which men can serve is only 40 years.
1. Charles Scott Robinson received the longest sentence in US history.
The world's longest sentence, as we've seen, was something of a ploy. It may never have been carried out, and the man serving only a paltry eight years. It's hardly a Guinness World Record. But in the US, for a truly long sentence that didn't spare the defendants, you have to go back to 1994.
Charles Scott Robinson was already an eight-time felon. He was convicted of a series of serious crimes, including rape and indecent or lewd acts with a child under 16. His victim was a three-year-old girl. The jury gave him for 5000 years on each of the six counts he was convicted of. At a minimum, he would have gotten 20 years on each count, but the jury clearly wanted to send a message. That message was one of anger. Anger that criminals are convicted again and again, only to end up back on the streets committing crimes. And while there is certainly some merit in arguing that some convicted criminals can be rehabilitated, that is clearly not the case with Robinson.
Robinson's defence team called the verdict a joke and suggested it was more about outrage than anything else. He said it was based on an inaccurate perception that most criminals did not serve enough time, although one might imagine he would have struggled to gain any sympathy for his client in those particular circumstances.
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