Why give someone 100+ years in prison, why not call it ‘life’ imprisonment.
I’ve read (cite? sorry, not yet) of people who get -say- 6 life imprisonments of 25 years each, yet there is no chance they will be around when their parole comes up (or whatever) - is this a US thing? Why not give them life and be done with it, it’s not like ‘I’m in here for 300 years, what about you?’, ‘Me? I only got 250.’
Being sentenced to sit in a jail cell for 300 years…
Man, I’d hate to be that guy’s cellmate. Especially when he nears release.
One possible reason is that prison terms can be thrown out on appeal. So if a guy gets 6 consecutive terms of 25 years to life and on appeal it turns out that 4 of the convictions are thrown out, he is still on the hook for the other two.
The State of Oklahoma was pushing to try McVeigh for just that reason, in case his federal conviction was overturned.
Also, the law (and the victims family) tend to look at each murder as separate. The thinking is “He got a life sentence for killing John Smith (or my son)”. As opposed to “He got life for killing 6 people”. So for instance, in our McVeigh example, he was charged with eight counts of murder for eight federal employees, as opposed to being charged with “MURDER”
I think that in some cases, it helps determine which prisoners can have time taken off their sentences, get paroled, get time off, etc… So four life sentences would be less severe than six.
I may be slightly off on the details, but in at least one state in the US (and it does vary from state to state), a life term means you go to jail for your entire life–IF you are not paroled. That’s a big if.
Normal lifers are eligible for parole after something like 35 years. Sometimes even capital lifers (who could have received the death penalty but received life instead) are eligible for parole after 40 years.
On the other hand, I believe parole for specific jail terms kicks in based on percentages of the terms time. For example, a person who gets 100 years, might be eligible for parole after 75 years, reducible to 50 years or less with good behavior, especially depending on whether they are short on beds.
So a 300 year sentence might get you 100-150 guaranteed years (e.g., the convicts entire life), whereas a life sentence might get you only 35 guaranteed years.
If this seems strange, it is, and people are campaigning to change the law in that state to add a true “life without parole” jail term.
The other poster’s points are valid as well.
“Especially when he nears release.”
Oh by then he’ll be mostly dry and bony. Its the part before that you need to worry about. 
Here’s a question:
If you fall into a coma and are presumed dead, and a death certificate is drawn up, then you come back to life in an accident involved a defibrillator and a rubber band, do you still have to serve the rest of the life sentence?
Why stop there?
What if you serve a 20 year sentence for a murder you didn’t commit (and the alleged victim is actually alive). You then get out of prison, hunt down the “victim” and then murder him or her.
Do you have to go to jail again for another 20 years? Do you get a stiffer penalty for being a two-time offender? Or does double jeapordy apply, and you get one free murder?
This is fun!
No, you can’t “re-murder” the victim. This was the error that the movie “Double Jeopardy” made.
A criminal charge usually includes a date/time and the action involved (“On or about July 28 2002, John Doe murdered Jane Doe…”). If the “victim” showed up alive, the original conviction would likely be overturned. If John then went ahead and murdered Jane for real, he would face a new charge.
Zev Steinhardt
Of course, you are correct. I just couldn’t help myself.
Never actually saw the movie. I take it they messed up the law, eh?
It does raise the issue of what the state owes the individual for wrongful incarceration, but that’s not what the OP was asking.
Lenin, I think you were being a bit facetious, but in point of fact a question not unlike this has in fact come up, and with a friend of my wife’s to boot. He was on a moped hit by a big rig at speed, and was declared legally dead, and remained comatose and apparently dead long enough for a death certificate to be issued. Life signs were then detected, he was revived, and after extensive surgery is living something like a normal life.
His death certificate was legally revoked.
But he does have a copy of it, which he keeps as a souvenir. My son refers to him as “Dead Man Walking.” (How many people do you know that can show you their own death certificate?)
Without multi-century sentences, we wouldn’t have this joke:
A man with an incompetent defense attorney get sentenced to 300 years. The atorney leans over and says “Don’t worry, you’ll only serve half that.”