Graham and Zamora didn’t receive life without parole. At the time they committed their crimes, there was no such thing as “life without parole” in Texas, even in a case of capital murder. In a capital murder case in which the death penalty was sought, a jury was asked two questions:
Is this defendant a future danger to society? and
Are there mitigating factors present to spare the defendant’s life?
If the jury answered yes to the first and no to the second (or couldn’t answer the second), then the defendent automatically received life in prison with the possibility of parole in 40 years. In Graham and Zamora’s cases the death penalty wasn’t sought, so they automatically recived life wityh the possibility of parole in 40 years.
Ironically, not having “life without parole” actually worked against criminal defendants; if you didn’t receive the death penalty there was a possibility you might be out on the streets again someday, so putting you to death was the only way to be certain you would never again endanger the public. It was one of the many reasons Texas leads the U.S. in death penalty convicions. Governor Ann Richards pushed for a “life without parole” option, but prosecutors sucessfully blocked her time and again (to quote Harris County District Attorney John Holmes, “Those who ought to be confined forever ought to be executed”).
Texas finally passed a law giving jurors the option of sentencing a capital murderer to “life without parole” in 2005. As to whether the new law means those convicted under that provision will automatically spend the rest of their natural life in prison, I believe it does, but I have to admit that I don’t know for certain off the top of my head (unlike Harris county, death penalty cases are uncommon here). Texas law defines a “life sentence” as any sentence 60 years or over, so “life without parole” could mean the possibility of a young offender being released in his 80’s or 90’s after serving a 60 year sentence day for day. I’ll check the law library and find out for certain.
Where are you getting your information from? According to the story you linked to, neither of the killers received life without parole, and neither are confined to thier cells 23 hours a day.
I hadn’t read that whole article when I posted. I had the impression from other sites I’d found in my google search that the two things I said were true, but you’re right that it doesn’t appear so.
Isn’t a life sentence just 60 years though? So it would be possible to serve one and get out…that’s why some prisoners are sentenced to multiple life sentences or a certain number of years, i have heard sentences ranging from 70 years to several thousand years (guiness book of world records)
I remember when I was a kid, my dad told me that “Life” really just means “20 years” when it comes to prison sentences. Turns out he was wrong, but that doesn’t mean you are.
If i remember right it is 60 years…it must be a certain number of years though…or there wouldn’t be any point in sentencing multiple life sentences if you are already in there for life.
Is TWNPsycho7490 right? Is a life sentence limited to 60 years? If not, do people recieve multiple life sentences? If so, why?
I would think one reason why they would go through the motion of handing out multiple life sentences would be that it could make a difference in the following situation: One of the convictions is overturned, but the other is not.
Anyway, even if it didn’t make a difference, I can still imagine them handing out multiple life sentences just as a symbolic gesture. Plus, don’t prosecuting attorneys get evaluated, in part, by the number of convictions they get? And where there’s a conviction, there must be a sentence.
What a life sentence is depends on the jurisdiction. Here, anything 60 years or over is considered a “life sentence” in terms of parole eligibility. A first degree felony (unenhanced) carries a range of punishment of 5 to 99 years, and if it’s an assaultive offense (aka a 3g offense) you have to serve half of your sentence before you’re eligible for parole, in most cases up to a maximum of 30 years. So if you get 60 years for first degree murder, you’re eligible for parole in 30 years; if you get 80 years, still eligible for parole in 30 years. For a non assaultive offense, you can be parole eligible on a life sentence in as little as 7 months. People sentenced under the old “capital life” (like Graham and Zamore) will be parole eligible in 40 years, but anyone sentenced to capital life after September 1, 2006 will receive life without parole.
Exactly right.
Courts do sometimes hand out multiple sentences symbolically, and stack them to ensure a defendant will never get out. Richard Speck got consecutive sentences that added up to almost 900 years, if I remember right.