But those sentences were imposed concurrently with a ton of other counts. As a result, even after directing judgments of acquittal on these two counts, Mr. Hendrikson remains sentenced to two life terms in prison. Plus 20 years after that. (Plus, after he's dead, five years of supervised release, a supervision which should be fairly easy to accomplish.)
So no big deal in reality.
The underlying facts are fairly unusual. As Judge Fletcher explains: "James Terry Henrikson hired a hit man who murdered
two of his business associates. He hired a different hit man
to murder three other business associates, but those murders
were never carried out." How much did he pay for the murder that actually occurred, you might ask? $20,000.
That's relatively inexpensive, no? The price of a (fairly crappy) new car is apparently the price of a human life? Whoda thunk?
