Why do we sentence people to more than fifty or so years in prison even though everyone knows there is no way they can serve out the full sentence? Just how many skeletons or mummified remains do we currently still have in their cells serving out their 700 or 800 year prison sentences?
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Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years in Prison for Ponzi Scheme By JACK HEALY
Published: June 29, 2009 A federal judge sentenced Bernard L. Madoff to 150 years in prison on Monday for operating a huge Ponzi scheme that devastated thousands of people, calling his crimes “extraordinarily evil.”
In pronouncing the sentence — the maximum he could have handed down — Judge Denny Chin turned aside Mr. Madoff’s own assertions of remorse and rejected the suggestion from Mr. Madoff’s lawyers that there was a sense of “mob vengeance” surrounding calls for a long prison term.
“Objectively speaking, the fraud here was staggering,” the judge said. “It spanned more than 20 years.”
After victims told a packed courtroom that he should be shown no mercy in the case, which could bring a prison sentence of up to 150 years, Mr. Madoff stood up from the defense table to acknowledge the damage he had inflicted and expressed regret.
“I’m responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain, I understand that,” Mr. Madoff told the court. “I live in a tormented state now, knowing all of the pain and suffering that I’ve created. I’ve left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren.”
Addressing his victims seated in the courtroom, he said: “I will turn and face you. I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t help you.”
Prosecutors said that Mr. Madoff deserved the maximum sentence — representing a life sentence and more for the disgraced 71-year-old financier — for perpetrating one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history. Mr. Madoff’s own lawyers said he should receive only 12 years, a sentence that would offer him the chance to walk out of prison at age 83.
