Life imprisonment. Maximum term in prison in the Russian Federation Maximum term in prison in the Russian Federation

The amount of the sanctions directly depends on the public danger and the consequences of the crime. Life imprisonment in Russia is the maximum measure. It is used for the most serious crimes.

What are the articles on which you can go to jail for the rest of your life? Who does not face such a severe measure of responsibility? In this article, we will tell you how the situation is in 2019.

What is life imprisoned for in Russia?

Life imprisonment provides for the complete isolation of the offender from society - from the date of the announcement of the verdict until the death of the convicted person.

Initially, this measure was used as a substitute for the death penalty. Now it is an independent sanction, which is included in many articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

And although the size of the punishment is chosen by the court, Art. 57 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation clearly defines when a life sentence can be assigned - for especially grave crimes:

encroaching on the life of one or more people;
directed against the health of citizens and public safety;
directed against the sexual inviolability of children under 14 years of age.

They are imprisoned for life only for especially grave crimes.
Consequently, life imprisonment threatens for drug smuggling on an especially large scale, rape of a young child, terrorism and a number of other compounds that pose an increased public danger.

At the end of 2017, in the Russian Federation, a court for the first time awarded a life sentence for drugs. The verdict was received by a citizen of a foreign state who has been repeatedly convicted of such a crime.

The court can appoint a life sentence if it is directly indicated in the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Having received a life sentence, the offender is placed in a strict regime colony. At the same time, he is kept separately from other convicts - in single or double cells. Currently, there are seven strict regime colonies in the Russian Federation, where they serve life sentences.

Restrictions on the appointment of life imprisonment

As the sanction is very severe, it does not apply to:

women (age does not matter);

minors;

men who are 65 years of age at the time of sentencing.

Whatever crime a woman commits, life imprisonment does not apply.

The law specifies two more cases when a criminal can avoid such a harsh punishment:

Conclusion of a cooperation agreement

In this case, the accused undertakes to provide active assistance to the investigation, and in return receives a guarantee of a lighter punishment.

Jury verdict contains leniency clause

The court cannot influence the jury's decision, even if the collected evidence allows the maximum penalty to be imposed.

Life imprisonment is not threatened for attempted crime.

Under what article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation can life imprisonment be imposed?

The list of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is constantly expanding. This is due to the objective public interest to which the intent of the criminals is directed.

Let's take a look at some of them:

h. 2 tbsp. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - murder committed with;

h. 5 art. 131 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - rape of a young girl, if the offender was previously prosecuted for a similar act;

h. 3 tbsp. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - committing a terrorist act as a result of which people died;

art. 277 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - encroachment on the life of a statesman or public figure;

h. 4 tbsp. 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - smuggling of narcotic substances or their analogues on an especially large scale or by an organized group.

In the verdict, the court must refer not only to the corpus delicti under consideration, but also to Art. 57 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Since life imprisonment is the maximum penalty, a timely appeal to a lawyer will help to mitigate the sentence. Naturally, they will not be given a suspended sentence for especially grave crimes, but it is really possible to achieve a different punishment.

Is pardon or parole possible with life imprisonment?

How many years do you need to serve in a colony to apply for or for parole? Despite the “lifelong” imprisonment, the convicted person has the right to count on if:

the term actually served was 25 years or more;

the offender has corrected himself and does not need to continue serving his sentence;

over the past three years, he has not had any malicious violations in the correctional colony or in prison.

But the statistics are sad - over the past 20 years, only three prisoners have filed for parole. And everyone was refused.

A penitentiary institution that has, in addition to cell rooms, other conditions for keeping prisoners, should be classified as colonies or zones in which, in addition to buildings for keeping prisoners locked up, other buildings and structures are provided. Next, let's talk about the features and alternatives to imprisonment.

The limited scope of permitted activities, confined space and constant closeness with other people become a test of the psyche of prisoners, designed to create conditions for the prisoner to change his behavior in order to achieve a softening of the conditions of stay. The differences between the detention of suspects and places of imprisonment in Russia will be discussed below.

What does imprisonment for a certain period entail?

if the convicted person left the place of serving imprisonment without receiving permission, then up to three years may be added to his term;
if, did not appear before the date that was set for the appearance in the colony - up to 2 years;
a woman who does not appear in places of detention after the end of the delay is punished with imprisonment for up to 2 years.

There is a juvenile colony four types of conditions: strict, lightweight, regular and preferential. The term for determining easy living conditions can be either short - 3 months, or long - six months. The approach to each minor will be individual, taking into account his desire for correction, awareness of what he has done and good studies.

Longest prison sentences and harsh sentences in history

The very same long prison term received in 1972 the postman from Palma de Mallorca Gabriel March Grandos. He was sentenced to 384,912 years prison - and in turn got into the Guinness Book of Records. While working at the post office, Grandos destroyed 42,768 letters. Why? Because I didn't want to deliver them. Spanish law provides for a penalty of 9 years in prison for deliberate damage to documents. So much was given to Grandos for every letter he did not deliver to the address. However, again according to local legislation, Grandos must be released after 40 years in prison (that is, in 2012). Whether it happened or not is not known for certain, but AiF.ru could not find any fresh references to the postman Grandos.

Unlike Russia, there is no such thing as a maximum prison sentence in US federal law and the laws of many individual states. Punishments for aggregate of crimes they simply add up, as a result of which the convicts receive sentences, which they and several lives will not be enough to serve. In addition, some US states have the principle of "three crimes" - a life sentence is given for three crimes.

Article 56 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

4. With the exception of the cases provided for in part five of this article, in case of partial or full addition of the terms of imprisonment when sentencing for a cumulative crime, the maximum term of imprisonment may not be more than twenty-five years, and for cumulative sentences - more than thirty years.

How is the term in a pre-trial detention center counted?

One day for two in a pre-trial detention center. It is better known as the system of a year for two in jail;
In the pre-trial detention center, day after day goes in the following cases:
- Deprivation of liberty;
- Arrest;
- Forced labor;
- Maintenance in a disciplinary military unit;
One day to three with correctional labor and restrictions on military service;
One day in jail for eight hours of compulsory labor.

As a rule, prosecutors and judges try to meet the investigator halfway and place a suspect in a pre-trial detention center if there are grounds for suspecting him of committing a crime. And employees of the investigative committee, in turn, find many arguments about the complexity of the case and the complexity of the investigation.

Article 56

Persons who have previously served a sentence of imprisonment are recognized as persons who were sentenced to imprisonment for a crime committed in the past and served this sentence in a correctional colony, prison, medical correctional institution or in a pre-trial detention center (due to being left there to perform work for household services). The Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in the Resolution of April 11, 2000 N 14 "On the practice of assigning the types of correctional institutions by the courts" drew attention to the fact that the previous serving of a sentence for a crime is taken into account only if the conviction for this crime was not removed or canceled for the moment of committing a new crime.

Deprivation of liberty represented in the Criminal Code by three types of punishment: arrest, imprisonment for a specified period and life imprisonment. In terms of content, they all consist in the isolation of the convicted person from society, the same restriction of freedom of movement and choice of place of residence, as well as the freedom to choose a profession, place and nature of work, living conditions, etc. These three types of imprisonment differ among themselves on two grounds:

Article 56

1. Deprivation of liberty consists in isolating a convicted person from society by sending him / her to a colony-settlement, placement in an educational colony, a medical correctional institution, a correctional colony of general, strict or special regime, or to a prison. A punishment in the form of imprisonment may be imposed on a convicted person who has committed a crime of little gravity for the first time, only if there are aggravating circumstances provided for in Article 63 of this Code, with the exception of the crimes provided for in part one of Article 228, part one of Article 231 and Article 233 of this Code, or only if the corresponding article of the Special Part of this Code provides for imprisonment as the only type of punishment.

According to article 56 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, imprisonment consists in isolating a convicted person from society by sending him to a colony-settlement, placing him in an educational colony with a general, strict or special regime, or in a prison (part one); imprisonment is established for a term of two months to twenty years (part two); in the case of partial or complete addition of the terms of imprisonment when sentencing for a cumulative crime, the maximum term of imprisonment may not be more than twenty-five years, for the aggregate of sentences - more than thirty years (part four). Article 57 of the same Code provides that life imprisonment may be imposed for the commission of especially grave crimes that infringe on life, as well as for the commission of especially grave crimes against public safety (part one); life imprisonment is not assigned to women, as well as to persons who have committed a crime under the age of eighteen, and men who have reached the age of sixty-five by the time the court sentenced the sentence (part two).

The maximum term in prison in the Russian Federation

1. Deprivation of liberty presupposes strict isolation of the convicted person in places clearly defined by the criminal law. We are talking about correctional institutions where convicts serve imprisonment. Along with these institutions, it is necessary to take into account the pre-trial detention centers, which perform the functions of correctional institutions in relation to convicts left to perform work on economic services, as well as in relation to convicts for a term not exceeding six months, left in pre-trial detention centers with their consent (see: Art.77 of the RF PEC and the Regulations on the remand prison of the penal system of the Ministry of Justice of the RF, approved by Order of the Ministry of Justice of Russia dated January 25, 1999 N 20 // Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 1999. March 18 (as amended according to the Order of the Ministry of Justice of Russia dated March 15, 2001 g. N 85)).
Federal Law No. 420-FZ of December 7, 2011, amending part 1 of the commented article, established a ban on the use of a sentence of imprisonment for a convicted person who has committed a crime of little gravity for the first time, except in cases where there are aggravating circumstances provided for in Article 63 of the Criminal Code. This prohibition does not apply to crimes under Part 1 of Art. 228, part 1 of Art. 231 and Art. 233 of the Criminal Code, or cases where imprisonment is provided for by the article of the Special Part as the only type of punishment.
2. The law establishes strict limits for the terms of imprisonment: from two months to 20 years. Persons sentenced to imprisonment serve their sentences in correctional institutions within the territory of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation in which they lived or were convicted. In exceptional cases, due to the state of health of convicts or to ensure their personal safety or with their consent, convicts may be sent to serve their sentences in an appropriate correctional institution located on the territory of another constituent entity of the Russian Federation. For example, in some localities, a number of categories of convicts cannot be sent to serve imprisonment for medical reasons. This is described in detail in the List of medical contraindications for serving sentences in certain areas of the Russian Federation by those sentenced to imprisonment, approved by Order of the Ministry of Health of Russia and the Ministry of Justice of Russia of August 28, 2001 N 346/254 (Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 2001, November 13).
3. Convicts with open forms of tuberculosis, alcoholism and drug addiction are serving their sentences in medical correctional institutions (part 2 of article 101 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Treatment-and-prophylactic institutions perform the functions of correctional institutions in relation to convicts in them.
4. Part 4 of the commented article defines the maximum term of imprisonment for a combination of crimes and sentences (no more than 25 and 30 years in prison, respectively). At the same time, in terms of the totality of crimes, the above period does not correspond to the period established by the rules of Art. 69 of the Criminal Code, which refers to 30 years in prison. This collision must be urgently eliminated.

Reduction of the term of punishment

In what follows, we will focus on the "implantation" of the mediation procedure, which is widely used in foreign countries today, into the Russian law enforcement practice. This is the settlement of disputes with the participation of mediators: experts suggest inviting retired judges as conciliators.

The bill of United Russia Pavel Krasheninnikov was remembered on Okhotny Ryad only after the Communist Deputy Konstantin Shirshov, who was awaiting the entry into force of the verdict on the fraud case in the Moscow SIZO, sent a similar bill to his colleagues.

Institute for Problems of Modern Society

Effective mechanisms for monitoring the activities of the prison system also did not appear. It is extremely difficult for an ordinary convict to appeal against the actions of the prison department - the system is closed from public control, the prosecutor's office for the supervision of correctional institutions often does not respond to requests from prisoners.

There are about 650 thousand people in prison in Russia, according to this indicator, our country ranks second in the world after the United States. With a population of 2.4% of the global population, the Russian Federation contains about 7.5% of the total number of prisoners around the world.

05 Aug 2018 522

Prison terms vary widely. Someone is in prison for 2 years, someone for 5 years, and there are people who spend whole decades in captivity. The longest sentences are given for especially grave crimes. But not always only those guilty of atrocities end up in the casemates.

In ancient times, representatives of royal dynasties were thrown into dungeons, since they were competitors to the throne. At the same time, they were kept in terrible conditions. The fault of such persons consisted only in a noble origin. They were imprisoned for life for free-thinking, for unwillingness to put up with dictators and usurpers. However, something like this happens in our time. But for the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that criminals are more often put behind bars than carriers of other views.

But let's move from general to specific and consider specific examples of the longest prison sentences.

Here Morozov Nikolai Alexandrovich (1854-1946) can serve as a vivid example. This is a revolutionary from the populists. In 1882 he was sentenced to eternal hard labor for an attempt on the life of Emperor Alexander II. He spent 23 years in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress. He was released only in 1905 under an amnesty.

During these long years, a person has written scientific works in a variety of sciences. This is philosophy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy, and aviation. Morozov studied 11 languages, while still in prison he tried to print his prison papers. Once free, he devoted his life to scientific activity. He was awarded the title of professor, although the former populist did not even have a secondary education. In 1907, Nikolai Alexandrovich married a woman who was 26 years younger than him. He died at 92.

Vera Figner (1852-1942) from the same group of populists. She had a very good and warm relationship with Morozov. She ended up in solitary confinement in 1884 after replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment. She spent 20 years in prison. During this long period, it practically did not age, as if it had been mothballed. In 1904 she was sent into exile, and in 1906 she was allowed to go abroad. After that, Figner again plunged headlong into the revolutionary struggle. She died at the age of 89.

But the above examples pale with Paul Heidel's jail term. This is an American who went to prison in 1911 for the murder of a man. The prosecution demanded the death penalty, but the court found a number of mitigating circumstances. Therefore, the execution was changed to life imprisonment.

The convict was serving his sentence in New York State at Fishnill Prison. He was released from prison in 1980 after spending 69 years behind bars! An 86-year-old man who has spent almost the entire XX century behind bars was released. There is no information about how his further fate developed.

Japanese Shidamichi Hirasawa spent 39 years in solitary confinement, awaiting execution. He poisoned several bank employees with cyanide in 1949 in order to steal $ 400. In post-war Japan, this was a very large sum of money. The criminal was arrested and tried, but he never received a death sentence, since he left this world naturally in 1989.

It is believed that Korean Wu Yong Gik spent the longest time in solitary confinement. The term of his imprisonment was 40 years. In 1999, this man was released. Another Korean named Kim Sang Min almost equaled him in terms of the length of his sentence. He was arrested in 1955 for espionage. Released in 1994.

But the longest sentences in prison significantly exceed the time spent in solitary confinement. Here you can name the Australian Bill Wallace. In 1926, he shot a man with a gun and spent 69 years in prison. Wallace died in the prison hospital in 1989. It is noteworthy that at the time of his death, his age was 107 years. Could he have lived that long if he had been free? The question is rhetorical, but it still seems unlikely.

Considering the long terms, we did not take into account those convicts who periodically return to prison. Among them there are citizens who have spent two-thirds of their lives behind bars. Apparently this existence suits them, otherwise how can one explain the irrepressible craving for a prison cell.

It is difficult to explain the criminal laws of our country and their loyalty to persons who have committed especially grave crimes. After serving time, most of them continue to calmly do what they did before. Either those who pass such laws have never suffered from illegal acts, or they are sure that they have protected themselves and their families one hundred percent. Well, yes, there is always a place for chance in life.

RIGHT OR LEFT (JUDGE)?

When it comes to especially vicious criminals, one can only envy other countries in which they do not really stand on ceremony with murderers and rapists. When it comes to real JUSTICE, and not "left justice", as we have, then for some reason immediately thinks about America. It is possible that there are mistakes everywhere because no one canceled the human factor. But their punishments to people who have committed especially grievous are truly impressive. As you know, the law is in force there, not with a maximum term of imprisonment, as in our country, but a system of the totality of all crimes of a prisoner.

"A LOT OF SMALL"

True, foreign criminal laws are also distinguished by some extravagance. You can understand, for example, the death penalty, or life imprisonment. But so, to combine both, and more, but more than once! So, a certain John Gacy from 1972 to 1978 "traded" in America with murder and rape. His victims were 33 people, including children, as a criminal under the guise of charity performed at children's parties. In 1980, the maniac received what he deserved - 12 death sentences and 21 life sentences! In 1994, he was humanely executed by lethal injection. Stephen King has a book called It, and so Gacy became the prototype for the protagonist.

STILL NOT THAT POSSIBLE!

And how do you combine several life sentences and several tens, or even millennia ?! Dudley Wayne Keeser was sentenced to "only" 10,000 years in prison for the murder of his wife. So that his wife was not bored, he sent her mother and one student to her. For this, the killer got 2 life sentences. Everything is fair - one for each.

Horseradish RODKY IS NOT SWEETER

And without any millennia, you can get your legitimate 28 life sentences, like the maniac Bobby Joe Long from Florida did. During his bloody "career", he outraged 50 women, and killed half of them. Even Long's severe hereditary disease did not prevent the appointment of such an impressive period - he was born with an extra X chromosome, with all the ensuing unpleasant consequences, both for physiology and for the psyche. It was these consequences that caused the crimes. This is what we have with mentally ill murderers, as with a written sack. But, this is so, information for thought.

In California, farmer Juan Coron killed 25 migrants who worked for him within a year. Well, apparently, so as not to pay. In the same place, on the ill-fated farm, where the poor people were looking for work, they found themselves eternal shelter. The cold-blooded executioner justly received one life sentence for each life, that is, a total of 25 sentences. Saved, in short!

WHO IS THE LONGEST?

If the matter concerned, for example, money, then such a figure could somehow be realized. But when it comes to a prison term of 384,912 years, I want to ask right away: "For what ?!" Believe it or not - not for murder and rape, like our previous heroes, but for the destruction of 42,768 letters! Well, the postman M. Grandos was too lazy to deliver them, you think, the importance is great! We would only be scolded for this and shook their fingers. But Palma de Mallorca doesn't think so. For deliberate damage to documents, you can get 9 years in prison. So the criminal was counted off in time for each letter. It happened in 1972. Nobody knows what happened to the unlucky postman now.

But of the women, such an "honor" was awarded to a native of Thailand Chamoy Thipyaso, whose term is not so impressive - 141,078 years, but for her life, I think, will be enough. And at the same time, 7 of her accomplices, who received the same terms for being engaged in fraud on an especially large scale. People were engaged in an underground business. All of us are "underground" who are deputies, who are on the islands. As they say, who studied what.

PRISON LONG-LIVERS

Itself longer had to serve Paul Heidel, the porter of a New York hotel. At 17 he was convicted of murder. But, despite extenuating circumstances, Paul not only spent almost 69 years behind bars, but also managed to get out of there.
But the oldest prisoner was Australian Bill Wallace, who spent 63 years in a mental hospital for murder. And he died there, at the age of 108.

SO BY LITTLE

Shalom Weiss was lucky, so lucky! For the robbery of American pensioners, he was sentenced to 2000 years, but they took mercy, and knocked down the term to only 845 years. Apparently, the culprit sighed with great relief!

American Schmidt organized a construction investment pyramid. And along with millions of profits, he received 330 years in prison. How will he spend his millions there? Let him come to us - for such pyramids, people are often left without apartments, but not one has yet sat down for this business.
And the rapist from Pittsburgh Keith O'Wood got off with a very slight fright. He did not wait for his victims around the corner, but without ceremony sneaked into their houses and raped them under threat of murder. 160 years in prison - such is the price of his deeds.

It remains to be hoped that, suddenly, someday, the RIGHT will triumph here. In the meantime, the situation with justice in our country is like in "12 chairs", when a figure of justice was sold at an auction. They hit with a hammer and say: "Justice is sold!"

The legislation of some countries, primarily the United States, allows the appointment of huge prison sentences or several life sentences. Pravo.Ru presents the most impressive sentences (information about which is documented) and explains why they are needed.

As a rule, the purpose of extraordinarily long imprisonment is to prevent the offender from being released on parole. Many states in the United States have abolished the death penalty, but set a minimum period after serving which a prisoner can apply for early release. Multiple life sentences mean that even if the offender gets parole, the next minimum sentence will begin, and so on. For example, in the state of Oklahoma, where four of those present on the list were convicted, a person sentenced to life imprisonment may be released after 45 years. But in relation to the terms set in absolute number of years, the state has an “85% rule” - before being eligible for parole, the offender must have served at least 85% of the term; accordingly, by sentencing the defendant to a couple of thousand years of imprisonment, the court guarantees that he will never be at large. In addition, the death sentence in the United States is subject to mandatory approval in higher courts.

Charles Scott Robinson. 30,000 years in prison.

At this moment, the world championship, confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records, is held by a resident of Oklahoma, who was sentenced on December 23, 1994 by Dan Owen, a state district judge, to 30,000 years in prison. The jury recommended 5,000 years for each proven rape of a child, and the judge ruled that all sentences should be served sequentially.

Allan Wayne McLaurin. 12,750 years in prison.

Initially, the term of imprisonment of McLeurin from the same Oklahoma was only 4275 years: he received it for kidnapping, several rapes, robbery and robbery. But the offender and his accomplice (see below about Darron Anderson) decided to appeal the sentence, and this time they received several times more, in particular, McLeurin - 21,250 years. The next instance turned out to be more lenient and reduced the term by 1,500 years. Allan McLorin received the final verdict in 1996.

Dudley Wayne Kaiser. Two life sentences plus another 10,000 years in prison.

In 1981, Kaiser, an Alabama resident, was sentenced to death for the 1976 murders of his wife, mother-in-law, and another man. The Appeals Court overturned the sentence on procedural grounds, and in the second trial the jury set the final sentence. However, state law allows you to apply for parole "after a third of the sentence or 10 years," and in 2011 the Kaiser tried to exercise this right for the ninth time - unsuccessfully, like all the previous eight times. Now he is waiting for the next attempt, which may take place in 2015.

Darron Bennalfold Anderson. 10,750 years in prison.

Initially, the term of imprisonment for Anderson, an accomplice of the aforementioned MacLorin, was only 2,200 years. The appeal against the sentence resulted in a fivefold increase in the term - up to 11,250 years, which was then reduced by 500 years. Anderson received his final sentence in 1996.

Abdullah Galeb Al-Barghouti. 67 life sentences.

Al-Barghouti was an influential official in the administration of the Palestinian Authority and, at the same time, the organizer of numerous terrorist attacks directed against the Israelis. Together with him, eight more Palestinians are serving dozens of life sentences in Israeli prisons: Ibrahim Jamil Hamid (57 life sentences), Hussein Abdul Rahman Salama (48 life sentences plus 20 years), Mohammad Attiyah Abu Warda (48 life sentences), Mohammad Hassan Arman (36 life sentences) , Abbas Mohammad Al-Sayyed (35 life plus 150 years), Wael Mahmoud Quassem (35 life plus 50 years), Anas Galeb Jaradan (35 life plus 35 years) and Syed Hussam al-Tubasi (31 life plus 50 years). However, the real term of punishment for them, most likely, will depend on the political situation in the region.

James Kevin Smith. 40 life sentences and 60 years in prison.

The father of the family, who lived in Parker County, Texas, decided not to seek sexual pleasure on the side, but used his three daughters - he himself claimed that with their voluntary consent. Moreover, Smith radically eased the burden of proof for the prosecution when, in a telephone conversation (on record) with his mother from prison, in fact, although not in plain text, he confessed to what he had done. Ultimately, the jury found him guilty on all 43 counts.

Juan Vallejo Corona. 25 life sentences.

Juan Corona was convicted of the murder of 25 (hence the number of life sentences) seasonal workers who worked under him in various orchards in California in the spring of 1971. The prosecution believed that there were more victims, only the bodies were never found. In 1978, the California Court of Appeals overturned the conviction and remitted the case - a Crown attorney was able to convince the court that the lawyers who defended the Crown in the first trial had made grave mistakes. The jury deliberated for a total of 52 hours, but delivered the same verdict. On December 5, 2011, the Crown was denied early release for the sixth time; he will make the next attempt in 2016, if he lives, of course - now he is already 80 years old.

Bonus

Gabriel March Granados, a 22-year-old resident of Spain, had the chance to get an unimaginable sentence. During two years of work as a postman in Palma de Mallorca, in 1968-1970, he did not deliver 42,768 letters, he opened some of these letters and stole a lot of bank checks from them, for a total of 50,000 euros in today's money. The prosecution, counting nine years for each undelivered message, demanded a sentence of 384,912 years' imprisonment and a fine of approximately 19 million euros. The court slightly reduced the sentence - 14 years and two months in prison and a fine of 500 euros.