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Comment by cstross | Hacker News Reader

His time served is actually twice as long as the average life sentence served for actual murder in the UK. (Some murderers are in for a "whole life" tariff -- ineligible for release on license -- but in general most are eligible for parole hearings after between 8 and 12 years and on average they serve roughly 20 years.)

Just in case anyone was thinking that 44 years for attempted murder is a light sentence.

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In Norway Arnfinn Nesset served 12 years in prison and 10 years on parole for murdering 22 patients: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnfinn_Nesset . He may have killed as many as 138.

In Crime & Punishment Rodya only has to serve 8 years for the double axe murder of two women in the commission of a robbery. It's a fictional tale about justice in 19th century Russia, but still an interesting comparison I think of when reading about modern sentencing.

Wasn't "8 years in Siberia" likely a death sentence?

Not in the imperial time, no. Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead is an interesting account of his time in Siberia, and it wasn't all that bad.

It was different in Stalin's time, though. Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma tales tells a very different story. But even he survived after having served 15 years.

The mortality rate in the Kolyma gulags was estimated at 27%/year, meaning the odds of survival for 15 years were <1%, and virtually zero for general work (mining etc). Shalamov survived because he managed to land a position as a hospital attendant.

This assumes that random people die each year. However, if you survive for a year, you are probably very tough, and your life expectancy might actually go up.

He got a reduced sentence for saving two kids from a burning house.

In Netherland, I believe 20 years is the maximum, and with good behaviour, you could be out in 13. The murderer of Pim Fortuyn (in 2002 our first political murder in 400 years) was released from prison recently.

I've had several colleagues from the UK bemoan the light sentences criminals receive in the UK. Each time I was suprised when the person referred to "proper" sentences in the US.

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