system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:  Why do courts use terms like "6 life sentences plus 140 years" when sentencing a criminal?  Why can't they just say, "you're never getting out?"
gpt
In verdicts like that one the defendant was convicted of multiple crimes, each of which has it's own sentence. If he ever gets acquitted of some of those crimes, but not all of them then we know how many life sentences they are still sentenced with.