10 Times Justice Was Actually Served

Ten Times Justice Was Actually Served

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we’re looking at Ten Times Justice Was Actually Served.

For this list, we’re looking at those long sentences that were more than well-deserved, given to people who unfortunately once walked this earth.

Do you think justice was really served in all of these cases? Let us know in the comments!

1,200 Years for Richard Speck
Even before the worst of his crimes was committed, Richard Speck committed crimes and brought extreme harm to the people in the many cities he lived in. However, in South Chicago, in July of 1966, his rather memorable tattoo implicated him in the assault and deaths of eight nursing students who lived in a communal home together. After being convicted, the American mass murderer was initially sentenced to death, but that was later reversed. While serving a sentence of 400 to 1,200 years, nature ran its course, and the self-described freak died in 1991, just shy of 50 from heart complications.


161 Life Sentences for Terry Nichols

American homegrown terror attacks weren't quite as common in the 1990s – making the Oklahoma City attack all the more shocking. When thinking of this terrible crime - which killed more than 160 - most think of the lead conspirator, Timothy McVeigh, who was given the death penalty in 2001. However, he did not act alone, nor was he the only one to receive a brutal hand of justice. While not executed, Terry Nichols, who planned the attack with McVeigh, was given 161 consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole.


28 Life Sentences, 1 Death Sentence & More for Bobby Joe Long

Convicted in the mid '80s, Bobby Joe Long was ultimately executed in 2019. Imprisoned for kidnapping, assault, and the murder of at least 10, Long was sentenced to a five year prison sentence, plus four 99 year terms, 28 life sentences, and the death sentence. Long's spree ended after the 26 hour abduction of Lisa McVey, who survived the 1984 ordeal. Following this, Long confessed to nine murders, but claimed to have committed as many as 50, largely by systematically targeting women through small appliance classified ads.


10,000 Years for Dudley Wayne Kyzer
Almost 20 years before the OJ Simpson case, there was a similar case involving a Tuscaloosa man – Dudley Wayne Kyzer – and his estranged wife. Dubbed the “Halloween murderer” for the timing of his killings, Kyzer shot not only his wife, but also her mother, and a college student who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was first given the death sentence in 1977, but after that was overturned by the Supreme Court, 10,000 years plus two life sentences were put on him in the early 1980s - a history-making sentence at the time. Despite his claims of remorse, he has been denied parole 10 times as of 2016.


35 Life Sentences for Billy Joe Godfrey

Unfortunately, there are people all over the world who get away with doing horrific things to people they are related to. And Billy Joe Godfrey from Rolla, Missouri was almost one of them. In 2014, after years of living with a terrible secret, an adult man came forward and revealed that his stepfather had abused him. After so blatantly stealing innocence, Godfrey was put away for 35 life sentences – or 1,050 years in prison – one term for each count of the crime he was found guilty of.


12 Life Sentences & 3, 318 Years for James Holmes
When “The Dark Knight Rises” came out in 2012, people were excited. However, for one young man, there was another reason entirely for the excitement. That year, in a crowded Colorado movie theater – at the height of the action on screen – James Holmes made the violence very real, opening fire on the crowd. He injured at least 70 and sadly, killed twelve. Plus, thanks to media coverage, he made the whole nation fear an American pastime. After a convoluted trial, 12 life sentences for the shooting, plus 3,318 years for the possession of explosives was considered a fair sentence.


42,922 Years for Jamal Zougam

March 11, 2004. Morning. Madrid, Spain. The commuter trains are running on schedule. Suddenly, ten, almost simultaneous explosions go off on four of those trains, leaving 191 dead and around 2,000 injured. This atrocity, dubbed by outsiders as Spain's 9/11, and known as 11-M within that nation, was found to be the doing of multiple terrorists, including Moroccan Jamal Zougam. While the Spanish court system linked the attacks to a Sunni pan-Islamist militant organization, no direct link was found to them in 2007. Convicted on murder and attempted murder charges, Zougam received 42,922 years in prison while the Spanish Emilio Suárez Trashorras received 34,715 years.


32,500 Years for Allan Wayne McLaurin & Darron Bennalford Anderson

The world, unfortunately, has some terrible people within it, and these two are among the worst. It is the intimacy of their atrocity that makes it most disturbing. In Tulsa in 1993, a woman’s car was suddenly run off the road by three men in the car behind her. Before she knew what was happening, all three of them attacked the newlywed for hours before she could contact the police. Though one man was never convicted, Allan Wayne McLaurin and Darron Bennalford Anderson were put away for 21,250 years and 11, 250 years, respectively.


30,000 Years for Charles Scott Robinson

Jurors gave 5,000 years for each count against Charles Scott Robinson, which ultimately earned him 30,000 in prison. The sentence, which was handed down in 1994, was determined by the jury due to life without parole not being a sentencing option. The judge, meanwhile, turned the screw a little harder when he ordered the terms to be served consecutively rather than concurrently, thus denying Robinson – then 30 – the chance of parole until the age of 108. This has since gone down as the longest sentence in US history. And given that multiple innocents were involved, the sentence was definitely justified.