History Main / LongerThanLifeSentence

In real life though, there's a [[JustifiedTrope fully practical reason]]. Usually, a ''single'' crime can't go over one life sentence or 99 years, but if a person is convicted of multiple crimes, they can easily receive multiple life sentences or triple-digit sentences. This is because convictions can be overturned, such as if a killer is [[NotMeThisTime wrongly accused of killing a second person]], causing the second killer to get away. If a person is convicted of two murders, they may get two life sentences, or a 198-year sentence, or "one life sentence plus 99 years". In all of these cases, if a conviction is overturned, this must cut the sentence in half, but the person still has a life sentence for the other murder. For this same reason, most countries that still have the death penalty allow criminals to receive prison terms on top of a death sentence, in case they are acquitted of the capital crime but not the lesser ones before execution.

In real life though, there's a [[JustifiedTrope fully practical reason]]. Usually, a ''single'' crime can't go over one life sentence or 99 years, but if a person is convicted of multiple crimes, they can easily receive multiple life sentences or triple-digit sentences. This is because convictions can be overturned, such as if a killer is [[NotMeThisTime wrongly accused of killing a second person]], causing the second killer to get away. If a person is convicted of two murders, they may get two life sentences, or a 198-year sentence, or "one life sentence plus 99 years". In all of these cases, if a conviction is overturned, this must cut the sentence in half, but the person still has a life sentence for the other murder.

* Played with in ''Webcomic/LeifAndThorn''. Reincarnation is a proven fact in the setting, although most people don't remember their past lives. The nation of Sønheim sometimes hands down multiple life sentences, and [[https://leifandthorn.com/comic/thorn-explains-marriage-and-reincarnation/ takes them quite literally]] - if a person is proven to be the reincarnation of a convict who died while serving a long sentence, they will be imprisoned.

** Just before the release of the game, several UsefulNotes/Xbox360 players managed to download an almost complete pirate of the game. Microsoft responded by banning the consoles with illegal copies from UsefulNotes/XboxLive until December 31st, 9999. [[ArcNumber Seven]]-thousand years.

* In the final episode of ''Series/BetterCallSaul'', Jimmy [=McGill=] is facing a sentence of life plus 190 years in federal prison for his part in Heisenberg's operations. He manages to get his sentence reduced to seven years via plea bargain but changes his mind at the last second and accepts culpability for all the crimes he committed while working for Heisenberg, which nets him a sentence of 86 years. He tells Kim there's a chance he could be granted parole for good behavior, but it's pretty clear that he doesn't believe that'll happen and his age means that even if he did manage to win parole, his post-prison life would likely be brief.

* In November 2022, Darrell E. Brooks Jr., of Wisconsin, was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without parole, plus 762½ years in prison (followed by 305 years of extended supervision), plus restitution of over $523,000 for deliberately ramming a 2021 Christmas parade crowd with his [=SUV=] -- one life sentence per person killed, the additional years are for all the other charges connected to the attack. He also received 150 years for six counts of hit-and-run--again, one for each of the deceased victims--running concurrently with the sixty-one reckless endangerment charges.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Contra}} Contra: Shattered Soldier]]'': In the year 2642, Bill Rizer was framed for using a weapons grid that destroyed 80% of the Earth's population. He was also framed for murdering his partner, Lance Bean. As punishment, Bill was sentenced to 10,000 years in prison. Five years later, aliens attack Earth. Bill is released from prison and fights the alien armada with help from a cyborg named Lucia.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest1InPursuitOfTheDeathAngel'' after apprehending the drug lord, Jesse Bains, he is sentenced to 97 years for counts of Illegal Gambling, Drug Trafficking, Attempted Murder, and First Degree Murder, without possible parole. This doesn't stick in the sequel, as he gets tired of waiting for his appeal to go through and breaks out of prison, seeking revenge.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'' after apprehending the drug lord, Jesse Bains, he is sentenced to 97 years for counts of Illegal Gambling, Drug Trafficking, Attempted Murder, and First Degree Murder, without possible parole. This doesn't stick in the sequel, as he gets tired of waiting for his appeal to go through and breaks out of prison, seeking revenge.

** Just before the release of the game, several UsefulNotes/Xbox360 players managed to download an almost complete pirate of the game. Microsoft responded by banning the consoles with illegal copies from UsefulNotes/XboxLive until December 31st, 9999.

* Bernard Madoff, the infamous {{Ponzi}} scheme mastermind, was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009 after pleading guilty to eleven counts, including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, making false statements, and perjury, the maximum sentence allowed (the judge rejected his lawyer's [[PleaBargain plea]] of only seven years due to his age). He served eleven years of his sentence before dying in prison of end-stage kidney disease on April 14, 2021.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Barghouti Abdullah Barghouti]], notorious bombmaker for the Hamas paramilitary group, was sentenced to 67 life sentences plus 5200 years without parole.

* In 2004, Palestinian bomber Abdullah Barghouti was sentenced to 66 life sentences plus 5,200 years for several terrorist attacks in Israel. This is the highest total of life sentences given outside the USA.

* In November 2022, Darrell E. Brooks Jr., of Wisconsin, was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without parole, plus 762½ years in prison (followed by 305 years of extended supervision), plus restitution of over $170,000 for deliberately ramming a 2021 Christmas parade crowd with his [=SUV=] -- one life sentence per person killed, the additional years are for all the other charges connected to the attack. He also received 150 years for six counts of hit-and-run--again, one for each of the deceased victims--running concurrently with the sixty-one reckless endangerment charges.

* In November 2022, Darrell Brooks, of Wisconsin, was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without parole, plus 763 1/4 years in prison (followed by 371 years of supervision), plus restitution of over $170,000 for deliberately ramming a 2021 Christmas parade crowd with his [=SUV=] -- one life sentence per person killed, the additional years are for all the other charges connected to the attack.

* Even before he became the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' villain ComicBook/{{Carnage}}, Cletus Cassidy was a SerialKiller who had received eleven consecutive life sentences. And when he got angry at his cellmate [[ComicBook/{{Venom}} Eddie Brock]], he figured he'd "make it an even dozen" by killing him too, as he was smart enough to realize his chances of gaining a release via legal means was pretty much nonexistent. Unfortunately, that was when the Venom symbiote re-bonded with Brock and he escaped, leaving behind a young symbiote that bonded with Cassidy.

* Larry Nassar, who used to be a world-renowned sports physician treating America's foremost Olympic women gymnasts, was sentenced in Michigan to a term of 40-175 years for committing numerous sexual assaults against many of the gymnasts. This is in addition to a 60-year sentence he received from the federal government on child pornography charges. Between both sentences, he won't be eligible for parole until the year 2117, by which point he would be 153 years old.

In real life though, there's a [[JustifiedTrope fully practical reason]]. No sentence for a ''single'' crime can be more than 'one' life sentence or around 99 years (for a fixed-length sentence) in general, but a person convicted of multiple crimes at once can easily receive triple-digit sentences or multiple life sentences if they run consecutively. This is because some of the convictions may be legitimately overturned later (such as if a killer was [[NotMeThisTime wrongly accused of killing a second person]], causing the second killer to get away). For example, a person convicted of two murders may be given two life sentences, or a 198-year sentence, or "one life sentence plus 99 years". In any of these cases, an overturned conviction must cut the sentence in half, pushing the authorities to look for the second killer, but this still leaves the person with a life sentence for the other murder.

In real life, criminals don't always serve their full sentences, with parole as an option after serving a fixed fraction of the original sentence. A 200 year sentence is worse than a 100 year sentence if the former allows parole after (say) 67 years, and the latter after only 33.

* ''TabletopGame/WorldTreeRPG'': Some crimes warrant multiple death sentences, the lighter ones with an equal number of resurrections -- life magic, including resurrection of the recently dead, is generally very cheap and reliable.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'' after apprehending the drug lord, Jesse Bains, he is sentenced to 97 years for counts of Illegal Gambling, Drug Trafficking, Attempted Murder, and First Degree Murder, without possible parole. This doesn't stick in the sequel.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'': [[spoiler:After she's arrested and judged, Elizabeta Torres is sentenced to 300 years of imprisonment for thirty charges (ten years each) of cocaine distribution. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by her voicemail, where she says she can't answer the messages before the end of her prison sentence, and also by The Liberty Tree which mentions the sentence as a record for a Liberty City criminal case.]]

* [[ComicBook/LuckyLuke The Daltons]] are serving a 4200-year hard labor sentence at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/LaBalladeDesDalton'' before escaping.

An alternate possible consideration is that an extremely long set-length sentence can prevent a criminal from becoming eligible for parole in jurisdictions where the rules require them to serve a given fraction of the sentence first.

* In ''Series/{{Elementary}}, the series finale sees [[spoiler:the show's final BigBad, Odin Reichenbach, sentenced to 148 years in prison for his numerous murders from his criminal conspiracy to kill potential criminals before their crimes are committed.]]

->"''ONE MILLION YEEEAAARS!! DUNGEON!''"

-->'''Lemongrab''': "''[[NoIndoorVoice ONE MILLION YEEEAAARS!! DUNGEON!]]''" *jail door slams*

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': {{Downplayed|Trope}} example. [=DuVaul=] was sentenced to 50 years of hard labor for his part in trying to conquer the old west with the intention that he wouldn't survive it. Unfortunately (for [=DuVaul=] that is) he was given extended life by the Lazarus Pits and by the end he was a broken shell of his former self.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Overlapping with DisproportionateRetribution in "Operation: S.P.A.N.K.", when the team tricks Count Spankulot into spanking a judge and his wife (''long'' story) Spankulot is sentenced to '''"eleventy-trillion years with no chance of parole ''ever''!!"''' (He still manages to be a thorn in their side in a couple of episodes, [[MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll one while still behind bars]], and another that suggests he was released somehow.)

-->'''Lawyer''': Tell that to the judge and you'll be lucky if you get out this century.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "Blendin's Game", we find that Blendin's punishment for letting Dipper and Mabel steal his time-tape in "The Time-Traveler's Pig" included a "life-squared" sentence.

--->'''Weasel:''' Ninety-nine years in this joint might not be so bad.
--->'''Baboon:''' At least we not getting life.

* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' episode "This Little Piggy", Medusa gets 300 years taken off her sentence to Tartarus, which is apparently only a small fraction of her original sentence (though as an immortal she'll presumably be able to serve it eventually).
-->'''Medusa:''' Freedom in 4010. [[FlatJoy Ring-a-ding-ding.]]

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Chef Aid" when Chef sues Capitalist Records for plagiarism and is found guilty of harassing a big company. The judge declares that Chef must either pay two million dollars or serve eight million years in prison. However, when someone informs the judge that nobody can be forced to serve more than four years for what Chef is being sentenced for, the judge does comply and says that Chef will serve four years in prison if he doesn't pay.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Bubbletown", [=SpongeBob=] is given three life sentences for accidentally destroying most of Bubbletown.

* Sosuke Aizen in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is given a 20,000-year sentence for his crimes as the BigBad (10,000 of which were added by the judge for being a smartass). Even with the [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld incredibly long lifespan]] of {{shinigami}}, this is still far longer than any shinigami has been known to be alive for (Yamamoto is at least 2,100 years old, though his true age is unknown). However, Aizen's immortality meant he could have served the entire term of his sentence if he hadn't got out anyway after serving less than 2 years.

* Dr. Wily gets a well-deserved one in ''[[Manga/MegaManMegamix Mega Man Gigamix]]'' for his world domination schemes. "Asteroid Blues" sees him sentenced to 2,000 years solitary confinement. Later in "Burning Wheel", all the additional attempts and miscellaneous destruction have it upped to ''100,000'' years in prison.

* ''Literature/TrinityBlood'': Leon Garcia de Asturias has been convicted to about a thousand years in prison for a mass murder, but has his sentence reduced by several years every time TheChurch [[BoxedCrook makes use of his combat skills]]. At the time of the main plot, he still faces many centuries of incarceration, however.

* ''ComicBook/AchilleTalon'': In ''Le Grain de la folie'', Achille Talon expects being sentenced to 745 years (with mitigating circumstances) for [[spoiler:breaking in Surrender's base]].
* In the widely-unknown (even in Europa) ''Bobo the Convict'', centering around the life a standard comedy convict always trying to escape, although the story is set in modern times, has a convict that had such a sentence, obviously during the [=XIXth=] century, AND IS STILL PURGING IT. In one story, he has eventually served the sentence and leaves the penitentiary in a hearse, much to the other convict's amusement.

[[folder:FanWorks]]
* ''Fanfic/TheAccidentalAnimagus'': Peter Pettigrew tries to ask for a PleaBargain, until Amelia Bones points out how futile it would be.
--> '''Amelia:''' Mr. Pettigrew, you are currently facing sixteen counts that carry potential life sentences. Are you hoping to plead down to ''one'' life sentence?

* ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'', unlike canon, sees Sportsmaster being actually caught and jailed, along with his daughter Cheshire, so no-one breaks him out. His other daughter, Artemis, later meets his side of the family and lets them know that he's serving fifteen life sentences in Belle Reve.

* [[ComicBook/LuckyLuke The Daltons]] are serving a 4200-years hard labor sentence at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/LaBalladeDesDalton'' before escaping.

* In ''Film/AustinPowersInGoldmember'', The World Organization, after arresting Dr. Evil, gives him a 400-year prison sentence for his crimes against the world. Dr. Evil, as a "last words", has Mini-Me [[{{Mooning}} moon]] the judge.

* ''Film/DeadtimeStories'': In "Goldi Lox and the Three Baers", the newscaster reports that Beresford 'Papa' Baer and Wilmont 'Baby' Baer were both seving 4,726 years for their various crimes.
* In ''Film/MalcolmX'' the main character's friend, Shorty, faints because he thinks he will be the victim of this trope.

* In ''Literature/RedDragon'', it's mentioned that Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter got sentenced to several consecutive life sentences for his killing and eating of multiple human beings. The film adaptation starting Anthony Hopkins and Edward Norton places the exact number at six in a FreezeFrameBonus in the opening credits.

* In the final episode of ''Series/BetterCallSaul'', Jimmy [=McGill=] is facing a sentence of life plus 190 years in federal prison for his part in Heisenberg's operations. He manages to get his sentence reduced to seven years via plea bargain, but changes his mind at the last second and accepts culpability for all the crimes he committed while working for Heisenberg, which nets him a sentence of 86 years. He tells Kim there's a chance he could be granted parole for good behavior, but it's pretty clear that he doesn't believe that'll happen and his age means that even if he did manage to win parole, his post-prison life would likely be brief.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Deadlock" the Criminal-of-the-Week is a convicted mass murderer, serving eight consecutive life sentences. He escapes and kills a lot more people before being rearrested. His prior crimes mean bail isn't even up for debate but also means he has no reason to take any deals. In fact, he tries to get the D.A.'s office to bargain with ''him'' (for better prison conditions), pointing out every trip to the courthouse is another chance to escape. Also, there's really nothing riding on the trial. What are they going to do, give him additional consecutive life sentences? The D.A.'s office starts looking for legal loophole they can use to put him up for the death penalty, [[spoiler:and then he's killed in a VigilanteExecution setting off the ''real'' trial of the episode]].

* The {{Villain Protagonist}}s of ''Theatre/ThrillMe'' are sentenced for "life, plus ninety-nine years" for their murder of a child. [[spoiler:Nathan gets out on parole eventually, but Richard dies in prison.]] TruthInTelevision.

* ''VideoGame/ClockTower3'': All the subordinates that serve as bosses in the game were given ridiculous long sentences for their crimes. For example Sledgehammer, the first subordinate, was a stone-cutter called Robert Morris who murdered 26 people and was sentenced to 486 years. The sentence is directly proportional to the bosses' Hit Points.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'': [[spoiler:After she's arrested and judged, Elizabeta Torres is sentenced to 300 years of imprisonment for thirty charges (ten years each) of cocaine distribution. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by her voice mail, where she says she can't answer to the messages before the end of her prison sentence, and also by The Liberty Tree which mentions the sentence as a record for a Liberty City criminal case.]]

--> '''Lemongrab''': "''[[NoIndoorVoice ONE MILLION YEEEAAARS!! DUNGEON!]]''" *jail door slams*

** In the Creator/DiCEntertainment continuation, the two-part episode "D-Day at Alcatraz" began with Cobra Commander, Destro, Metalhead and several Cobra soldiers being sent to Alcatraz. The warden mentions that they'll all be serving out sentences of 362 years. The Cobra soldiers are ultimately the only ones who are left serving out their sentences, as Cobra Commander, Destro and Metalhead manage to escape at the end of the two-parter.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' episode "Flight of the Snow Duck", after committing the [[FelonyMisdemeanor heinous crimes]] of playing in the snow without signing the paperwork for it, not complimenting the judge's new hairdo, and having imaginations, Molly and Wildcat in Thembria were sentenced to 1,000 years in prison. Baloo also gets sentenced 2,000 years for "defacing state property" after wiping away a government stamp on a plane (despite it being his own plane the Thembrians accidentally stamped on) and also not complimenting the judge's new hairdo. These might actually be considered light sentences considering Thembrians usually like to conduct over-the-top public executions.

* Bobby Joe Long was sentenced to 28 life sentences, 99 years sentence and one death sentence by UsefulNotes/{{Florida}} for serial murders and rapes that he committed in 1984. He was executed on May 23, 2019.
* James Earl Ray got a 99-year sentence for the assassination of [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement Martin Luther King Jr]]. After he escaped from prison and was recaptured a few days later, one more year was added to his sentence. He served twenty nine years before dying in 1998.
* Jamal Zougal was sentenced to 50,000 years for the 2004 Madrid train bombings. [[note]]It's worth noting that according to current Spanish law nobody should spend more than 40 consecutive years in jail for the same crime, [[SubvertedTrope so Zougal could be a free man by 2044, at the age of 71]].[[/note]]
* Ronald [=DeFeo=], Jr., perpetrator of the so-called Amityville killings, was sentenced to six consecutive sentences of 25 years to life, hence a minimum of 150 years.

** A player was caught using video chat to send explicit video to other players during a game of Uno. He too was banned until December 31st, 9999.
* While 'Indefinite' is the usual terminology for permabans on Website/{{Wikipedia}}, on other Wiki services, it's common to see particularly annoying vandals, trolls and other internet oiks be given longer-than-life bans by irritated admins to make an example of them, often accompanied by an [[PassiveAggressiveKombat overtly passive-aggressive ban reason]] for good measure.

* Sholam Weiss got sentenced by the federal government to 845 years ''in absentia'' for fraud, the largest sentence ever given for a white collar crime, and was initially eligible for release on November 23, 2754. He served 20 years in prison before being pardoned by UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump in 2021.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_Bulger James "Whitey" Bulger]], infamous mob boss of the Winter Hill Gang in Boston, was convicted of numerous crimes and sentenced to two life sentences [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and five years]] for his crimes. [[ForegoneConclusion He died in prison]], stabbed by another inmate.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Schürrer Christine Schürrer]], an immigrant woman in Sweden who murdered the two children of her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend while trying to murder the girlfriend (who was severly wounded but survived) was sentenced to "Life in prison, and then [[PersonaNonGrata lifetime banishment from Swedish soil]]" (a rare punishment that can only be applied to non-citizens). She was returned to Germany where she was born and will serve out her prison sentence there. In Sweden, a life sentence is generally equal to around 30 years in prison, so she will probably be released while still alive.

* British businessman Roger Cooper was arrested in Iran, accused of espionage and sentenced for 'Death Plus Ten Years', the title of his book on the affair. He was released after only five years.

* In July 2019, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the infamous Mexican drug lord, was found guilty of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to launder narcotics proceeds, use of firearms, and international distribution of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. He was condemned to a life sentence plus 30 years in the federal Supermax prison of Florence, Colorado without possibility of parole.

* On 1973, Erlich Anthony Coker was sentenced in Georgia to three life sentences and 48 years for murder and rape on a 16-year-old girl and rape and attempted murder on another 16-year-old girl. When, while escaping on 1974, he kidnapped, robbed and raped another 16-year-old girl, he received a death sentence for rape, which was quashed and replaced by two life sentences and 32 years for the various offenses he did during his escape.

* The Turkish judicial institution began to make frequent use of longer-than-life sentences from the second half of 2010, openly admitting to drawing inspiration from the American justice system :
** A first case in 2013, when Onur Kopçak, a hacker, was condemned for multiple credit card numbers stealings, each with a separate sentence, which adds up to a total of 199 years, 7 months and 10 days in prison. It doesn't end up here, because in January 2016, in a phising case, he was convicted on several charges of identity theft, website forgery, fraud in accessing an information system, and electronic payment fraud. The added years brought him to a total of 334 years in prison (2013 and 2016 convictions combined), making him the longest-serving hacker in the world.

* In 1986, Jerry Whitworth was convicted in San Francisco of selling Navy coding secrets to the Soviet Union, and sentenced to 365 years behind bars.
* The infamous Australian child pornographer Peter Scully was sentenced to life in 2018 for numerous counts of human trafficking and child sex abuse in the Philippines where he lured minors into being subjected to unspeakable acts, the most greivous of which was the so-called "hurtcore" film ''Daisy's Destruction'' which was described as "horrific" by prosecutors, leading some to demand that he should be [[DeathRow put to death]]. As if that wasn't enough, Scully's atrocities against children garnered him a second conviction and an additional 129 years in prison.

* The title character of ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' was sentenced to 88 consecutive life sentences for his crimes against humanity and Metro City. Largely meaningless, since he's able to waltz out the front door of his CardboardPrison, and back into his functional laboratory...''um'', lair.