On TV (non-fiction and fiction) one often sees a guilty defendant sentenced to “life without the possibility of parole”. (This, of course, implies the possibility of “life with the possibility of parole”.
However, one never sees a shorter-than-life sentence “without the possibility of parole (I.e., you never see “twenty years without the possibility of parole…” " Does this mean that for shorter-than-life sentences the possibility of parole is automatic and there is no such thing as, say, “twenty years without the possibility of parole”?
Or would that be “twenty years minimum sentence”? …
Federal sentencing law has basically eliminated parole in all federal cases. In other words, all federal criminal sentences, regardless of length, are without possibility of parole.
(However, parole is still generally available in most state cases, I think).
Federal parole was basically eliminated for crimes committed after 1987 but that doesn’t mean you have to serve the full sentence. You can still get time off for good behavior and serve less than the full sentence. But you do have to serve at least 85% of the time.
The phrase which is usually used instead is mandatory minimum sentence.
When they describe a life sentence that way, the lack of parole means that the person is basically never getting out. That’s the salient fact, the news-worthy piece of information I guess.
Twenty years without parole, on the other hand, means they really will get out after the 20 years are up. It’s much less dramatic and/or news-worthy when they’re still getting out, but (let’s say) five years later than one might have expected.
Also, there are people with a belief that life imprisonment “should” be ineligible for parole as a matter of principle, and the way cases get reported seems to reflect that belief to some extent. A lot of people don’t want justice - they prefer revenge - and this style of sentencing might be popular among that group.
You have to define what you mean by “parole”. I’m serious. There are two things that people mean by parole, and they don’t always go together. One is discretionary release by a parole board - for example, someone gets sentenced to 10-20 years, and is eligible for release consideration after 10 years. The second meaning is that a person is supervised for some period of time after release. The latter is often technically called something like “post-release supervision” or “supervised release” but people often refer to it as “parole”. It is possible to have the supervision part without the discretionary release part - a person might be sentenced to 7 years incarceration and 3 years supervised release. And that person may not serve 7 years before release, as there still may be good time involved.
It’s very common for someone to have a sentence with no possibility of discretionary release. It’s much less common for there to be a sentence with no possibility of supervision after release.
Another way of saying it would be to sentence someone to a ‘whole life term’.
This form of words is used in the UK.
In addition there are many more prisoners who have been awarded such long minimum terms that they will die in prison, these are effectively whole life tariffs in all but name.
Added to these are prisoners who will have their cases referred to the parole board once their minimums have been achieved but will still be deemed as not having satisfied the requirements for release - some of whom have committed other serious offences in prison, or have not been prepared to acknowledge their guilt, or have refused to identify the whereabouts of their victims, or fully explain the circumstances of their crimes - despite the evidence being sufficient to convict them. Such prisoners may well never be released, however they do have a mechanism through which they can (theoretically) apply.
There are some out there. In Texas, the offense of Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child (Tex. Pen. Code § 21.02) is penalized y 25 to 99 years, or life, in prison. And, the Texas Government Code, which includes the rules of parole eligibility, says at § 508.145(a) that, “an inmate under sentence of death, serving a sentence of life imprisonment without parole, serving a sentence for an offense under Section 21.02, Penal Code, or serving a sentence for an offense under Section 22.021, Penal Code, that is punishable under Subsection (f) of that section is not eligible for release on parole.” So, you can get sentenced to 25 years and not be parole-eligible.
(22.021(f), by the way, would be conviction of an Aggravated Sexual Assault if the victim is either under six, or under 14 and the actor causes serious bodily injury, attempts to kill the victim or anyone else, uses a deadly weapon, threatens to kill the victim, drugs the victim, things like that.)
I’ve been told by two people who did time behind bars that judges, at least in some places, have an option that nails down the end date of the sentence. The judge may specify, for example, twenty years and one day. A friend of mine worked with a volunteer group called Bikers Behind Bars. One inmate told him of being in a Texas prison. Another Texas prisoner had been sentenced to “life and one day.” When the old guy died, the guards put him in a pine box in the exercise yard for the next full day, before removing the body. The inmate telling the story said he decided that day that he was never going back to Texas again. True or not, it was a chilling story.
I was just a training yesterday that pertained to human trafficking. A case study that was presented concluded with the accused being sentenced to 20 years w/o the possibility of parole. This was in NJ.