6 Unprecedented Prison Sentences
Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall at some of the most stunning sentencing hearings ever? Well buckle up, as we take you inside the courtroom to get the scoop on the six lengthiest U.S. sentences ever handed down!
6. Bobbie Joe Long - 28 Life Sentences + 99 Years + Death Sentence
Serial killer Bobbie Joe Long's method of finding victims involved combing through the items-for-sale classified section of the newspaper and visiting the seller's home. If the seller turned out to be a woman home alone, he would then rape her at knifepoint. Long raped more than 50 unfortunate women this way and plead guilty to murdering 10 of them. The state of Florida passed down a harsh sentence for this serial killer and executed him in 2019.
5. James Eagan Holmes - 3,318 Years + 12 Life Sentences
On July 20, 2012, James Eagan Holmes bought a ticket to see a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" at Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. He sat in the front row, briefly exited via an emergency door and then returned 18 minutes into the film, spraying bullets across the audience. In 2015, the state of Colorado sentenced him to 12 life sentences for the 12 victims who died that day and 3,318 years for the other 70 injured victims.
4. Dudley Wayne Kyzer - 10,000 Years + 2 Life Sentences
A triple murder in Alabama resulted in one of the lengthiest sentences ever recorded in the United States. In 1981, Dudley Wayne Kyzer first shot his estranged wife Emily in front of their 6-year-old child. Then he delivered a fatal gunshot wound to a college student named Richard Pyron, down through the top of his head. Finally, he shot his mother-in-law Eunice Barringer in the eye at close range. The court considered these crimes extremely brutal and sent a message by sentencing him to two life sentences plus 10,000 years.
3. Darron Bennalford Anderson - 11,250 Years
In 1994, Darron Bennalford Anderson collaborated with a friend to kidnap, rape, and rob an elderly woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They first rammed her car off the road and abducted her. Then they took her to motel and sodomized her repeatedly. Finally, they brought her home to continue the attack, where she managed to call for help. Although the woman lived, the state of Oklahoma still sentenced Anderson to 2,200 years in prison. He appealed the verdict, and the judge actually increased his sentence to 11,250 years! It was later reduced by 500 years, but even so, his parole date won't be anytime soon.
2. Allan Wayne McLaurin - 21,250 Years
Coming in at No. 2 on this list is Anderson's friend, Allan Wayne McLaurin, who fared even worse with the court than Anderson did. Originally sentenced to 21,250 years, an appeal judge reduced his sentence to 20,750 years - which is still a release date of September 20, 9837.
1. Charles Scott Robinson - 30,000 Years
And finally, Charles Scott Robinson received a whopping 30,000-year sentence in 1994 for raping a 3-year-old child. The Oklahoma jury demonstrated their fury at this crime by handing down 5,000 years for each of the six counts of rape, ensuring that Robinson would die in prison. Robinson appealed, but the judge upheld the harsh sentence, though he noted that humanity itself may even be extinct in 30,000 years.
Extreme sentences like these send a message that the U.S. judicial system will not tolerate these types of heinous crimes. Though sentencing a criminal to thousands of years in jail can be largely symbolic, we can't definitely say that it prevents perpetrators from repeating similar offenses.
References: Longest Prison Sentences Ever Recorded | List of the Longest Prison Sentences | 5 Longest Prison Sentences in U.S. History | Ten of the Longest American Prison Terms Ever Served | 141,078 Years In Jail: A Look At World's Longest Prison Sentences Inside The Crimes Of Bobby Joe Long, The Florida Serial Killer Who Murdered At Least 10 Women | James Holmes | Ariel Castro's Life Sentence Plus 1,000 Years Isn't Even Close to History's Longest Prison Term| Sentences for Pair Total 32,500 Years | Oklahoma man is serving the longest prison sentence given to anyone in the USA | Court Cuts 500 Years Off Tulsan's Rape Sentence
