m u r d e r...

Sentencing for murder in the criminal justice system draws little distinction  between the rare group of serial killers,  people who committed acts of violence that are unlikely for reasons of circumstance or advanced age to ever happen again, and people whose offenses the average American may not consider to be murder at all.

For example, the felony murder rule says that if someone dies during the commission of a felony, everyone involved is as guilty of murder as the person who pulled the trigger. Driving a getaway car during a bank robbery where someone was accidentally killed is indeed a serious offense, but few people would really consider that to be murder.

Many people who killed at an early age in the context of political unrest, gang violence or in reaction to personal trauma are serving sentences of '7 to life', '25 to life' or  'life with the possibility of parole' that have gone well beyond their time.

The 'lifer' yards are full of aging prisoners with geriatric health conditions who haven't committed an act of violence in thirty or forty years. Many women are serving decades for defending themselves against an abusive partner. These are hardly potential repeat offenders who could now be considered a danger to society...