The Top 10 Longest Sentences Ever Handed Out By Courts

The establishment of a proper system of justice where every aggrieved party can receive justice in a civilized manner is one of the greatest human achievements. Courts are tasked with delivering justice, which happens to be one of the hardest things to deliver to full satisfaction. When a criminal has committed a crime that doesn’t fit in the normal scope of a reasonable sentence, courts have the option of sentencing the person to death where it is allowed. However, when the death penalty is not an option, courts may sentence you to a sentence longer than the age of the cosmos.


 

Cat Behind Bars

Chamoy Thypiaso: 141,078 Years

What happens when you create a pyramid scheme that threatens the very foundation of the Thai economy? That is exactly what Chamoy Thypiaso did from the 1960s to the 80s when her scheme was finally shut down. Her husband worked for the Thai Royal Air Force while she was an employee of the Thai Petroleum Authority, so they managed to get some very powerful people into their Ponzi scheme. High ranking air force officials and even members of the Thai royal family were duped. It is believed that her scheme fetched her over $300 million.

When she was finally arrested, she was kept in a secret location while the government forced her to pay back most of the money she got. When she was finally brought to court, the figure was reduced to $200 million, but the courts still sentenced her to 141 thousand millennia plus another 78. In most countries, this sentence would be illegal, but this was Thailand in the 1980s, and powerful people were very angry. She was lucky when the law changed, reducing the number of years a person can serve in prison to 20. She only served 8 of all those years before getting released under unclear circumstances.

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The Madrid Bombing Suspects: 43,000 Years

The Madrid bombing in 2004 remains the deadliest in Spain’s history after killing 192 people and injuring another 1,800. The attack was blamed on Al Qaeda-loyal terrorists based in Europe who managed to load bags filled with explosives on multiple Madrid Trains. The bombing led to one of the largest manhunts in the world as the authorities looked for the suspects across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Thirty people were arrested, but none got as much attention as the three masterminds.

Under Spanish law, each death attracted 30 years in prison while an injury attracted 20. This meant that each suspect was sentenced to 38,000 years for killing and injuring people. Jamal Zougam and Otman ElGnauoi were given an extra 5,000 each for terrorism, bringing their sentence to an impossible 43,000 years behind bars. The supreme court, however, put a cap on the maximum sentence in Spain to 40 years, shelving thousands of years of the terrorists’ sentences.

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Emilio Suarez: 34,715 years

Jose Emilio Suarez was a 30-Year old miner in 2004 when the Madrid bombings happened. He was not known to be part of any terrorist organization, although he was the person that supplied the dynamite used in the attack. The anger was at his reason for selling the dynamite in the first place, though. Suarez stole the dynamite from a mine in Austria and exchanged it for drugs. The judge charged him as an equal accomplice to the rest of the bombers and gave him a similarly long sentence. He was also a beneficiary of the 40-year sentence cap, meaning he can get out of prison at 70.

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Charles Scott Robinson: 30,000 Years

Charles Scott received the longest prison sentence in US history for six counts of rape. His ridiculous sentence was all because of an angry jury. It happened in December 1994 when there was an outcry about the Early-Out system in the US that was allowing many criminals to avoid serving their full sentence.

The jury decided to give Scott 5,000 years for each count after a 35-minute deliberation. There was an outcry about the length of the sentence, as many activists termed it activism rather than justice. Scott could only seek parole after serving 78 years of his first sentence, but since the sentences were consecutive, he could only be released after 390 years if he survived that long.

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Cats Behind Bars

Alan Wayne: 20,750 Years

Oklahoma is known for its harsh sentencing of rapists. Alan Wayne and Darron Wayne, also mentioned in this list, abducted a woman off a highway and proceeded to assault her for several hours before taking her to her home in Sand Springs, where they again raped her before robbing her. The two were first sentenced to a combined 6,000 years in 1993 before the prosecution appealed, saying the sentences were “too light.” The jury increased the years on each count of rape and other crimes to 2,000. He hasn’t finished the 50 yet, so he will be staying behind bars for a “few” more years.

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Darron Bennalford Anderson: 11,250 Years

Darron Bannalford was the accomplice to Alan Wayne in the 1993 rape and robbery case. The jury agreed that Darron deserved to have 9,500 years less on his sentence because he was not involved in some aspects of the crime. He joined Wayne after he had already kidnapped the lady, but he was guilty of some counts of rape and forceful sodomy and got 2,000 years for each. He also got 1750 years for kidnapping and another 5,000 years for whatever the jury deemed a crime, meaning he gets to die beside his friend unless he can put on some immortality.

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Dudley Wayne: Two Lifetimes Plus 10,000 Years

Before Charles Scott, Dudley’s sentence was the longest one in US history and even had a spot on the Guinness world records before Chamoy Thypiaso got her 141k. He is the famous Halloween killer of 1976 when he murdered his wife, his daughter, and a student.

He was supposed to die in the electric chair, but Alabama banned the death penalty before he was killed, so he had to be retried in 1981. The judge decided that for a man who had escaped certain death, two life terms and another 10,000 years was a fair sentence. It is not clear which one he will die from first, though, the lifetime or the 10K.

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Abdullah Barghouti: 67 Lifetimes Plus 5,200 Years

Abdullah Al Barghouti is still one of the highest-ranking leaders of the armed wing of Hamas ever sent to an Israeli prison. The IDF arrested him for his involvement in the bombing of Israeli settlements between 2001 and 2002 in which at least 66 Israelis died. He has become a common name in prison after turning into an activist, writing several books, and going on a hunger strike while demanding better treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. He was given a lifetime in prison without parole for each Israeli life lost to the attacks, and another 5,200 for the injuries and the losses caused.

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Martin Bryant: 35 Lifetimes Plus 1035 Years

On April 29th, Port Arthur residents commemorate 35 people that were lost in the Port Arthur Massacre of 1996. The culprit was Martin Bryant, a mentally unstable man who got his hands onto a semiautomatic rifle. He went to a diner and killed 20 people before killing another 15 on the street. His crimes led to the enacting of strict gun control laws in Australia.

The jury gave him a lifetime in prison for each life he took and another 1035 for the damage and terror he caused. Mental instability has, however, been used many times in his defence as he has attempted suicide many times in prison since he was jailed.

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Terry Nichols: 161 Lifetimes

Nichols’ sentence remains one of the most controversial convictions in US history. He was the accomplice of Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that remains the worst act of domestic terrorism in US history. There were 168 deaths in the bombing, 8 of whom were FBI agents. The Federal government gave him life without parole for the eight agents.

Oklahoma State, however, decided to split the lifetimes, so he would serve a lifetime for each Oklahoman that died in the attack. Many people still consider the sentence unfair because he supplied the Ammonium Nitrate and the getaway car for the bomber who was killed while he got to live. The jury couldn’t agree on whether to kill him or not.

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