Most countries apply sentences concurrently rather than consecutively.
Therefore, if you get sentences of 5, 3, 7, and 10 years you only serve 10 years. If however you're later proven innocent of the 10 year crime but the others stand, you only serve 7.
If you somehow are sentenced again to a separate string of crimes, your sentence may begin at the time you entered custody for the original crimes, OR may start at the time of the second round of sentencing and run concurrently with the first.
Much fairer in some ways than serving 12 years of 20 terms of 6 months for minor offenses, but on the other hand a mass murderer could be out in just a decade or two....
__________________
If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives.
Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect"
Mors ante pudorem
|