I think I could settle for life sentence, if it truly was a life sentence, but our "justice" systems makes me sick.
One triple
murderer has recently been in our newspaper headlines, because he was released on Monday after serving for 19 years.
"After nightfall Valjakkala stole a bicycle. He was pursued by Sten Nilsson and his 15-year-old son Fredrik. The chase ended at a cemetery where Sten and Fredrik Nilsson were both shot by Valjakkala with a shotgun. Later Sten's wife and Fredrik's mother, Ewa Nilsson, went looking for the two, was chased into the woods and had her throat slit by Valjakkala outside the cemetery."
This happened in 1988. He was convicted of three counts of murder. After his conviction he has been in the headlines couple of times as he has tried to, or escaped from prison.
In 1989 his wife was caught trying to smuggle a gun for him to use in an escape attempt.
In 1991 he tried to climb over the prison walls using a rope, but was caught before he managed to escape.
In 1994 he took the prisons english teacher as a hostage, but was caught 3,5 hours after the escape.
In 1997 he was caught from the prison roof as he tried to escape yet again. He was armed with a self-made shotgun.
In 2002 they let him out for a two day UNSUPERVISED VACATION. It was a big surprise when he decided not to come back. He was later caught in Sweden. While he was on the run he stole a car and received a three month sentence.
In 2004 he climbed over the prison walls, but was caught couple of hundred meters outside the prison. He was sentenced to 30 days for this. And as a good use of tax payers money, he appealed the verdict. But later withdrew his appeal.
His last escape was exactly 15 months ago, when he left his "open-prison". He was caught couple of days later.
So the parole board decided, in their great wisdom, to let this "model prisoner" go after serving for 19 years. Which is an exceptionally long sentence by our standards. It seems none of his escape attempts had no effect on the parole decision.
The term life sentence is a misnomer, mockery and insult for victims, and as such, it should be removed from our law books. No matter how many people you kill, you will have your first parole hearing after serving for 12 years and every second year after that, if the parole is denied. Once you are out on a parole your sentence is reduced to 3 years. Meaning, that if you violate your parole, the sentence is turned into a 3 year sentence.
When a mother kills her baby, it's not even considered a murder here. It's a child murder for which the sentence is a minimum 4 months to a maximum of 4 years.
It would be very, very tempting to kill in retribution when you consider the alternative. And who cares, if you get caught. You might get away with manslaughter which is 8 years, 4 years for first timers and even less for good behavior.
It's very easy to be pro-death penalty here. When the alternative is a 12 year insult on victims.