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Comment by logicchains | Hacker News Reader

There are sometimes sitautions where someone's guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt; I don't imagine prosecutors would be particularly afraid to pursue the death penalty for someone like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik (who got 21 years in jail for the murder of 77 people).

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Whilst that's the maximum permissible sentence in Norway it's worth highlighting that it can be extended indefinitely if he is considered still a risk to society - the requirement to review the need to continue detaining him (on a semi frequent basis) being considered a human right.

Based on his activity since being convicted I doubt he'll be released for significantly longer than his minimum sentence.

That doesn't sound like much of a "human right" to me, if a maximum sentence can be extended by a parole board.

What if it was rephrased as an indefinite sentence, but a minimum of 21 years?

(If the law doesn't permit a longer minimum, then 21 years is the "maximum sentence" in that there cannot be a longer mandatory period imposed.)

Yeah- I mean I get that's what happening here. It's just weird to me to consider it a "right."

I just don't see how it's fundamentally any better than the US system of minimum and maximum sentences, with some possibly some provisions for early parole reviewed every year or two after some portion "X" of the sentence has been served.

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