Does life actually mean life in the US?
It depends on the state. In general, states and the Feds have are three sentences used for getting rid of someone who is a danger to society on a more or less permanent basis. I will list them and their typical/intended employment - note that this doesn't mean they won't be misused, this is just what they were intended for.
1. Life With Possibility Of Parole: Used when the convicted has committed a severe crime but the judge or jury thinks that after some long indefinite period of the individual may repent and be rehabilitated into a productive member of society. Falling into disuse because of soft-hearted parole boards, criminals getting better at acting (you must demonstrate good behavior in jail and show repentance for the crime to the parole board) and for other reasons. However, someone receiving this sentence will not see his first parole hearing for at least 10-20 years in any case, barring exceptional circumstance. But it *is* possible that they will be out in 10. Understandably not popular because of this.
2. Life Without Possibility Of Parole: Used when the crime does not merit death (if that's even available) but the convicted is assumed to be unrehabilitatable. In the vast majority of states (mine included), "Life without parole" means "Life without parole" - short of escape, pardon, or successful appeal, the convicted will NOT be leaving custody. In some states like California, it sometimes means "imprisonment until we need more room, then we send you home with a GPS tracking ankle bracelet." There are various reasons as to why they do it, many of which have to do with not desiring to build more prisons.
3. Death: Used in cases where the crime is heinous and violent, such as the murder of a police officer, premeditated murder, murder in the course of another violent felony. The death sentence can only be used in cases involving the murder or death of another human being or the serial rape of minors. The real reason for the death sentence in the US, aside from the deterrence factor, is to eliminate someone for the good of society: "This person is so dangerous to society that the mere possibility that this individual might escape and kill again is unacceptable." Up until recently, was enjoying a revival as a way to punish murder more severely than, say, repeat burglary.
Now, until recently (in many states), the procedure to execute a felon took so long to get them to the death chamber that it might as well have been a sentence of "life without parole" as a Death Row inmate was more likely to die from old age than the executioner. This was because the appeals and such had to go through the normal, overloaded court system, and lawyers would use legal trickery to try to snarl up the works for years.
In Texas, we had this system as well. Then we had seven inmates escape from Death Row/maximum security prison near Kenedy, Texas. The first thing they did was come to the Dallas area, rob a sporting goods store for guns, ammo, and supplies, and murder (for no good reason) a young policeman of my acquaintance. The governor of Texas issued a dead or alive warrant for them (preferably dead); they were eventually captured in Colorado (alive, unfortunately).
Shortly after that, Texas funded and established a special district court system to speed through the appeals; its only function is to swiftly process appeals and claims for Death Row. And no, they're not just rubberstamping decisions, they're actually considering it fairly. The big difference is that the judges of this system are specifically assigned to these and only these cases, so they won't get bogged down by an overloaded schedule of other trials and motions. This has reduced the average time between sentencing and execution from 20-30 years to 5-10. Death Row is being cleared out. Other states have started to do the same thing.
Some states no longer have the death penalty, so the worst sentence you can get for any crime committed there is life without parole.
So, in summary - in most places in the US, Life without parole *means* life without parole. Death is starting to mean death, not life imprisonment. In the states that reinstated the death penalty after the Supreme Court made everyone revise or drop their laws on capital punishment, the per capita murder rate *has* gone down.
Guys... No im not protecting the robbers. They should all go in prison, but not get killed... Life is life. Couldnt care whos life is it.
Right now, in New York, if a repeat offender burglar is caught breaking into your home, he will go to jail for life. If he kills you in your home to avoid identification, the most he risks is going to jail for life, because that is also the sentence for murder in New York.
That's right - break into a house for the second or third time in New York, go to jail for life without parole. Kill someone in New York, go to jail for life without parole. Same sentence.
Since he does not want to be caught in the first place, and since the penalty does not significantly change or increase for murdering you in the course of stealing your stuff, chances are pretty good that he's going to KILL YOU because it's essentially "free" - and if you're dead, you can't identify him in a lineup or testify against him in court.
American criminals have been interviewed and studied (in prison, of course), and this is *exactly* their thinking. Is it any wonder that the law abiding now want guns to protect themselves?