Just piping in with a worm's eye knowledge that the discussion above about "life" sentences does not hold true in all parts of Europe.

With due respect to the scholars above, given the similarities between countries ultimately based on Napoleonic code (as opposed to common law), I'd urge them to re-check, and dig deeply, whether they are referring to common practice and common wisdom, or actual law.

In the Netherlands, there was until recently a popular misconception that there is no such such thing as a "life" sentence in the sense of, life in jail with no possibility of parole.

When I researched this, I was told many times that the situation here is identical to that described above for Germany.

However, it turns out that there is a "life," sentence. It was almost never awarded before Sept. 11 _ only in a few cases involving multiple murders _ but since then it has been revived, controversially, and it is applied in a growing number of cases almost every year, including the highly politicized single murder case of filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

Yours cautiously,

Toby