Life imprisonment in the United States

Rare card · No. 67802

In the United States, life imprisonment is the most severe punishment provided by law in states with no valid capital punishment statute, and second-most in those with a valid statute. According to a 2013 study, one of every nine prison inhabitants of the U.S. were imprisoned for life as of 2012. American case law and penology literature traditionally divides life sentences into "determinate life sentences" or "indeterminate life sentences". The latter indicates the possibility of an abridged sentence, usually through the process of parole. For example, a sentence of "15 years to life" or "25 years to life" is called an "indeterminate life sentence", while a sentence of "life without the possibility of parole" or "life without parole" (LWOP) is called a "determinate life sentence". West Virginia uses the unique terms "life with mercy" and "life without mercy", respectively, for these two categories. The first category are "indeterminate" in that the true length of each prisoner's sentence...

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