List of longest prison sentences served

This is a list of longest prison sentences served by a single person, worldwide, without a period of freedom followed by a second conviction. These cases rarely coincide with the longest prison sentences given, because some countries have laws that do not allow sentences without parole or for convicts to remain in prison beyond a given number of years (regardless of their original conviction).

Longest sentences served

  Indicates cases where imprisonment is still ongoing

More than 70 years

Name	Sentence start	Sentence end	Sentence duration	Country	Description
Charles Foussard	1903	1974	70 years, 303 days	Australia	Homeless French Australian confined in the J Ward mental asylum in Ararat, Victoria, after murdering an elderly man and stealing his boots. Died while still incarcerated at the age of 92, making this the longest-served prison sentence in the world with a definite end. [1]
Francis Clifford Smith	June 7, 1950	July 8, 2020	70 years, 31 days	United States	Longest-serving prison inmate in the United States whose sentence ended in release. Sentenced to death for the murder of a nightwatchman during a robbery at a yacht club in July 1949, his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1954, only two hours before his scheduled execution. [2] Smith was imprisoned in the Osborn Correctional Institution, but was paroled and moved to a nursing home in July 2020. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

60–69 years

Name	Sentence start	Sentence end	Sentence duration	Country	Description
Walter H. Bourque Jr.	December 11, 1955	ongoing	69 years, 259 days	United States	Longest-serving prisoner in New Hampshire. Serving a sentence of 99 years and six months for the axe murder of a four-year-old girl when he was 17. [8]
Paul Geidel Jr.	September 5, 1911	May 7, 1980	68 years, 245 days	United States	Sentenced to 20 years to life and incarcerated from 1911, aged 17, for robbery and murder. He was nearing parole for good behavior, but was then found insane in 1926 and transferred to Dannemora State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where he was confined until 1972. He was finally released in 1980 at 86. He died in a nursing home in 1987, aged 93.
John Phillips	July 17, 1952	March 9, 2021	68 years, 236 days		Convicted for the rape of a five-year-old girl. [9] According to the North Carolina DOC, he was released on March 9, 2021, on parole. His parole ends on March 8, 2026. [10]
Joseph Ligon	December 18, 1953	February 11, 2021	67 years, 54 days		The oldest juvenile lifer in the US, Ligon at age 15 was sentenced to life without parole for murder, a mandatory sentence at the time. [11] Ligon first rejected a resentencing and parole offer in 2016. [12] Ligon was again resentenced in 2017 and immediately eligible for parole but refused it, pending his appeal. Ligon contends that he should be resentenced to "time served" and released, so he can cut all ties to the justice system. On February 11, 2021, Ligon was released from prison at the age of 83. [11] [13] He spoke to the BBC World Service about his life in May 2021. [14]
Kenneth Nicely	December 23, 1958	ongoing	66 years, 247 days	United States	Longest-serving inmate in Arkansas. Convicted of killing a police officer. [15]
Johnson Van Dyke Grigsby	1908	1974	66 years, 123 days	United States	After killing a man in a bar fight, he was sentenced to life in prison for murder and was denied parole 69 times before he was released at age 89. Returned to prison voluntarily, citing difficulty finding a job, but left again in 1976. Died in 1987, aged 101. [16]
Sammie Robinson	September 26, 1953	December 20, 2019	66 years, 85 days		Spent 66 years in prison in Louisiana, beginning when he was 17 and ending with his death at 83. [17]
Warren Nutter	February 10, 1956	December 8, 2021	65 years, 9 months, 28 days		Youngest man ever sentenced to death in Iowa, when he was 18 years old, for the murder of a patrolman during a gas station robbery. [18] Sentence commuted to life in prison in 1957. [19] He died in the hospice room of the Iowa State Penitentiary in December 2021, aged 84. [20]
William Heirens	1946	2012	65 years, 181 days		Known as the "Lipstick Killer". Reputed to be the longest-surviving prisoner in Chicago. Died in prison.
Catherine Antonovna of Brunswick	December 6, 1741	April 9, 1807	65 years, 4 months, 3 days	Russia	Imprisoned as a baby when her brother, Emperor Ivan VI of Russia was overthrown by Elizabeth of Russia. Released to Denmark in 1780 on the condition that she would continue under house arrest until her death.
				Denmark
Clarence Marshall	1950	2015	64 years, 70 days	United States	Longest-serving prisoner in Michigan. Sentenced to life in prison on one count of armed robbery and another of unarmed assault "with intent to rob and steal". He was paroled in 2015. [21] [22]
Richard Honeck	1899	1963	64 years, 44 days		Aged 20, Honeck was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a former school friend. He was paroled after 63 years and one month. He died in 1976, aged 97.
Howard Christensen	1937	2001	64 years		Sentenced to life without parole for the murder of a teacher in 1937, when he was 16, along with a 17-year-old accomplice who hanged himself in prison in 1943. His sentence was commuted to 200 years in the mid-1970s. He was paroled in 2001 and died in 2003, aged 82. [23]
Charles Edret Ford	1952	2016			Longest-serving prisoner in Maryland. Ford, a black man, was convicted of murder by an all-white jury in 1952, when he was 19. He was granted retrial in 2015, citing an unconstitutional trial and continued ineffective assistance of counsel who failed to inform him of his right to appeal. He was released to a nursing home. [24]
Oliver Terpening	1947	2010	63 years, 125 days		When he was 16, Terpening shot a 14-year-old school friend and the boy's three sisters, aged 16, 12, and 2. Prosecutors theorized that Terpening wanted to rape the oldest and that he killed the others when they surprised him, while Terpening claimed that he only wanted to know how it felt to kill somebody, and that he had found the experience disappointing. Died in prison. [25]
"Old Bill" Wallace	1926	1989	63 years	Australia	Imprisoned for shooting a man in an argument over a cigarette in a Melbourne cafe. Died a month before his 108th birthday, still in prison, incarcerated in J Ward. Listed in Guinness World Records as the oldest prisoner in world history. [26]
Michael Anthony Mayola	November 15, 1962	ongoing	62 years, 285 days	United States	Longest-serving prisoner in Alabama. Sentenced to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of an 11-year-old boy, and was last denied parole in 2021. [27]
Hugh Alderman	1917	1980	62 years, 192 days	United States	Longest-serving prisoner in Florida. Escaped twice in 1919 and 1924. Moved to a mental hospital in 1927, where he died in 1980, aged 86. [28] [ failed verification ]
Leon Tice	September 27, 1963	January 30, 2025	61 years, 4 months, and 3 days		Last man sentenced to death in Iowa. Sentence commuted to life in prison in 1965, a month before the abolition of capital punishment. Sentenced to death for a shooting rampage that killed Judy Ellen Jackson, 13, and Randall Curtis Burtness, 2, and wounded the boy's grandmother, 45, and half-brother, 7, in June 1963. [29]
James R. Moore	December 7, 1963	April 30, 2024	60 years, 145 days		Pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to "natural life." Also confessed to the sexual assault of dozens of other young girls. [30] [31] Last parole application rejected in 2019. [32] He was granted parole in May 2022 and was scheduled to be released on or around June 6, 2022. [33] However, as he was unable to provide a suitable residence upon his release, Moore was never paroled. He died in prison in 2024. [34]
Booker T. Hillery	November 1, 1962 [35] [ failed verification ] [36] [37]	January 16, 2023	60 years, 76 days		Longest-served prisoner in California history. Accused of stabbing and killing 15-year-old Marlene Miller with scissors in the small town of Hanford. Originally sentenced to death for murder but changed to life in prison in the 1970s. Appealed, was retried and found guilty again in 1986. Died in prison at the age of 91. [38]
Howard Unruh	September 6, 1949	October 19, 2009	60 years, 43 days		Mass murderer who killed 13 people and injured three in Camden, New Jersey. Recluded in a mental hospital without trial or conviction until he died aged 88.
Clifford Hampton	1959	2019	60 years		Longest-serving juvenile lifer in Louisiana. Resentenced due to Montgomery v. Louisiana and paroled in April 2019. [39]

50–59 years

Name	Sentence start	Sentence end	Sentence duration	Country	Description
Ruchell Magee	Late 1963	July 28, 2023	59 years and 8+ months	United States	Convicted in 1963 of kidnapping and robbery in an incident with his cousin that court records say involved a loaded gun, a moving car that had been reported stolen, and a $10 marijuana deal. Because of a prior attempted rape conviction (for which he had been imprisoned between 1955 and 1962), Magee was sentenced to life imprisonment. Involvement in the Marin County Civic Center courthouse attacks led to a second life sentence for aggravated kidnapping. He received compassionate release shortly before his death.
Raymond L. Shuman	June 13, 1958	February 3, 2018	59 years, 7 months, 20 days		Longest-serving prisoner in Nevada. Jailed for the robbery and murder of two men while he and his partner (who was the one that pulled the trigger) were AWOL from the US Navy. Set another prisoner on fire in 1973 due to a dispute about leaving a window open. Died in prison in 2018. [40]
Robert Brim (AKA Robert Mertz)	1958	January 7, 2018	59 years, 2 months		Killed a pregnant woman and her 3-year-old daughter, and wounded her 4-year-old son, during a shooting spree in South Dakota. Jurors convicted Brim of manslaughter since they did not want him to be executed. [41] [42] He died in prison. [43]
Larry Ranes	October 23, 1964	November 12, 2023	59 years, 20 days		Serial killer sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Gary Smock. He was also the brother of fellow serial killer Danny Ranes. He died in prison on November 12, 2023. [44]
Alfred Tai	May 15, 1964	March 26, 2023	59 years, 11 days		Pleaded guilty to murdering two police officers in Hawaii in 1963. Died in prison in Arizona in 2023. [45]
Harvey Stewart	1951	1957	59 years		Longest-serving prisoner in Texas at the time of his third parole in 2011. He was convicted the first and third time for robbery, and the second time for murder. [46] [47] [23]
	1958	1984
	1986	2011
Hans-Georg Neumann	1963	2022		West Berlin	Abducted and shot a young couple at a lovers' lane. Longest-serving prisoner in Germany and European Union. On March 17, 2021, the Oberlandesgericht Karlsruhe ordered his release on parole at an undisclosed future date, with preparations for reintegration to begin immediately. [48] Neumann was paroled in 2021, and died in 2022. [49]
				Germany
Chester Weger	April 4, 1961	February 21, 2020	58 years, 323 days	United States	Convicted for the murder of a woman in Starved Rock State Park in 1960. Granted parole November 21, 2019, though he was not released until February 21, 2020. [50] He died on June 22, 2025. [51]
Terry Caspersen	September 17, 1964	May 23, 2023	58 years, 248 days		Longest-serving inmate in Wisconsin. Sentenced in 1964 for the stabbing of an 18-year-old woman who survived the initial attack but died of her injuries two days later. He was up for parole in July 2021 but was denied. [52] [53] Caspersen died in May 2023. [54]
James Earl Hinton	January 26, 1967	ongoing	58 years, 213 days	United States	Hinton is serving life without parole for the 1966 stabbing death of Pickens County, Alabama cab driver Zach Rufus Collins. Initially, Hinton was sentenced to death, but the Alabama Supreme Court ordered a new trial. [55]
Michael Herrington	July 8, 1967		58 years, 50 days		Second-longest-serving inmate in Wisconsin. Sentenced in 1967 for two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder. [52] [56]
Jesse Pomeroy	December 1874	September 29, 1932	57 years, 9 months	United States	Teenage serial killer nicknamed "The Boy Fiend", who tortured nine younger children and killed two in Boston, Massachusetts. Sentenced to death when he was 15 years old, this was changed to life in solitary confinement after two consecutive governors refused to sign his death warrant. The solitary confinement was lifted in 1917, and he died in 1932, still in prison.
Edward Albert Seibold	September 20, 1967	ongoing	57 years, 341 days	United States	Seibold is serving multiple life sentences for the slayings of three girls and the injury of a mother in Lee County, Alabama in 1967. [55]
Henry Montgomery	February 1964	November 17, 2021	57 years, 263 days	United States	Shot and killed a police officer in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana at the age of 17. He was sentenced to death but in 1966, the Louisiana Supreme Court annulled the verdict after finding he had not received a fair trial due to public prejudice. In 1969, he was again convicted of murder, which triggered an automatic sentence of life without parole. In 2016, his life sentence was vacated and he was remanded for resentencing. He was denied parole twice but was finally granted parole and released on November 17, 2021. [57] [58] [59]
Robert Mone	January 23, 1968	ongoing	57 years, 216 days	United Kingdom	In 1967 he shot a teacher at his old school, and in 1976 he and another man escaped from the State Hospital, Carstairs, killing three people in the process. [60]
Robert Benjamin Smith	November 12, 1966	April 21, 2024	57 years, 162 days	United States	Perpetrator of the 1966 Rose-Mar College of Beauty shooting, where he murdered 6 people and injured 2 others. Died in prison in 2024.
Emmett James Paramore	1968	ongoing	57 years, 138 days	United States	As part of a group who attempted to steal goods from a delivery van, he shot and killed a bakery truck salesman. [61] [62]
Thomas Fuller			57 years, 121 days		Shot and killed five children in Coles County, Illinois. [63] [64]
John Mikulovsky	June 15, 1968		57 years, 73 days		Murdered his parents in December 1967. [65]
John David Smith	July 12, 1968		57 years, 46 days		Convicted of the murder of William Straight. [66]
Lester Pearson	1964	October 2021	57 years	United States	Convicted of murder in Louisiana and sentenced to life in prison with chance of parole after 10 years and 6 months due to a guilty plea agreement; however, Louisiana banned parole for all defendants who plead guilty to serious crimes before 1973 due to changes in state laws which prevented him from getting a chance of parole until he was resentenced and released in October 2021. [67] [68] [69] [70]
Wyman Hall	1897	1954			Hall was jailed in 1897 for the murder of a constable. He was paroled in 1954 at the age of 81 and was, at the time, the longest-serving inmate in Illinois as well as the oldest. [71]
Nobuo Oda [72]	December 14, 1968	ongoing	56 years, 256 days	Japan	One of two perpetrators of the 1966 Maruyo Wireless Incident. Oda, a 20-year-old employee at the Maruyo radio station at the time of the crime, was found guilty and sentenced to death for beating two other employees with a hammer, robbing the place, and setting a fire that killed one of the employees. He is the prisoner longest held in death row in the world.
Clyde Johnson	1969		56 years, 194 days	United States	Fatally shot a man at a party after a night of drinking in 1968. At a commutation hearing in 2021, Johnson alleged that the victim had called him a racial slur and reached for a gun. [73]
Sirhan Sirhan	1969		56 years, 132 days		Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. Originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted in 1971 to life in prison. Parole has been denied 15 times. On August 27, 2021, Sirhan was recommended parole by a California parole board. Prosecutors declined to participate or to oppose his release under a policy by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. [74] On January 13, 2022, California governor Gavin Newsom reversed the decision, stating that Sirhan had "not developed the accountability and insight required to support his safe release" and refused to accept responsibility for his crime. [75]
Mehmet VI	1861	1918	56 years	Ottoman Empire	Kept in the Seraglio and the Kafes from his birth to his accession to the throne, aged 56. He was both the last Ottoman prince to be ritually imprisoned by his family and the one who was imprisoned for the longest time.
Joe Carr	1941	1997		United States	Longest-serving prisoner in Kansas. Convicted of murder for strangling a newborn and tossing his body in the Arkansas river. Carr refused to apply for parole until he was released, aged 79. [76]
Sheldry Topp	1963	February 2019			Oldest juvenile lifer in Michigan. He was originally sentenced to life without parole for a murder he committed at age 17 in 1962 but his sentence was later lowered to 40 to 60 years due to Montgomery v. Louisiana because of his age at the time of the crime. He was also given 10 years' worth of good behavior credits which allowed him to be released in February 2019 without having to go through a parole hearing. [77] [78]
George Yutaka Shimabuku	1964	2020			Shimabuku was convicted of three killings, including one in prison. He was transferred to Arizona from Hawaii and died in December 2020 due to complications from COVID-19. [79]
William Holly Griffith	1915	1971	55 years, 359 days		Longest-serving prisoner in West Virginia, known as "the bestial killer" and the "leading bad man" in the state. Sentenced to life for murdering the police chief [80] who was going to arrest him and a constable [81] during his escape to Ohio, where he was arrested. Tried to flee prison several times, the last one when he was already suffering from cancer. Died in prison.[ citation needed ]
Allen Smith	c. December 1953	September 7, 2009	c. 55 years, 8 months		A former reform schooler who shot an elderly couple during a robbery north of Newberry, Michigan some days before his 17th birthday. His sentence was commuted for medical reasons in August 2009, only 12 days before his death. He died before he could be released. [25]
Bobby Beausoleil	April 18, 1970	ongoing	55 years, 131 days	United States	Member of the Manson Family originally sentenced to death for the murder of Manson's former associate Gary Hinman in 1969. The Family perpetrated the 10050 Cielo Drive and Tate–LaBianca murders in a failed attempt to make police believe that Beausoleil was wrongfully accused. He was recommended for parole in January 2019, but was denied by the Governor of California.
Antonio "Tony" Wheat	November 1, 1965	November 11, 2020	55 years, 10 days	United States	The longest-serving prisoner in Washington state, a US Air Force airman originally sentenced to death for the murders of three gas station attendants during an armed robbery spree with another colleague. His sentence was stayed four days before his scheduled execution on July 11, 1969, then changed to three life sentences after a retrial in 1971. Paroled. [82]
Norman Santiago	1969	ongoing	55 years	United States	Serving life without parole for the murder of a police officer in Hawaii. [83] [84]
Diego de Castilla	1379	1434	55 years	Castile	Illegitimate son of King Peter I of Castile, imprisoned in Curiel Castle by his uncle Henry II when he was 14 years old, and released by his uncle's great-grandson, John II. Died in 1440. [85]
András Toma	1945	2000		Soviet Union	Believed to be the last POW of World War II. Toma, a Hungarian soldier, was captured in southern Poland in 1945 and later interned in a mental hospital of rural Kotelnich, in Russia. His documents were lost, and he was listed as KIA by the Hungarian Army. He was returned to Hungary after a Czech linguist realized that he spoke an eastern dialect of the Hungarian language. Died in 2004, aged 79.
				Russia
John Straffen	1952	2007		United Kingdom	Multiple child killer. Sentenced to death for his third murder, which took place after he escaped from a mental hospital; the sentence was commuted to life in prison. Longest-serving prisoner in the United Kingdom at the time of his death.
Frank Edward Wetzel [86]	1957	2012		United States	Sentenced to two life sentences for the murders of two highway patrolmen when he was driving to Mississippi to break his brother out of death row. His brother was executed two months later. Wetzel maintained his innocence [87] and died of Alzheimer's disease when he was 90 years old, still in prison. [88]
Clarence Shepherd	1965	2020		United States	Shepherd was serving life without parole for separate murders, including the 1965 stabbing and strangulation of a Birmingham woman. He died in prison at the age of 80 due to COVID-19. [55] [89]
John Norman Collins	August 19, 1970	ongoing	55 years, 8 days	United States	Suspected serial abductor, rapist, and murderer of seven women in the Ann Arbor–Ypsilanti, Michigan area during the late 1960s, though only convicted of one murder.
Earl Perry	June 11, 1943	March 23, 1998	54 years, 286 days	United States	Convicted of the April 1943 rape and strangulation of Theresa "Chi-Chi" Williams, age 4. Perry, who was 17 when he committed the murder, was sentenced to life in prison on June 11, 1943. [90] He was denied parole in 1958, [91] 1963, [92] 1968 [93] and 1974. [94] Died in prison on March 23, 1998. [95] [ better source needed ]
Garold Rheinschmidt	August 20, 1960	May 1, 2015	54 years, 267 days		Longest-serving prisoner in Wisconsin at the time of his death. [96]
Verdell Miles	April 27, 1967	December 14, 2021	54 years, 231 days		Inmate in Wisconsin who was sentenced in 1967. Paroled on December 14, 2021. [52] [97]
Richard Robles	December 1, 1965	May 21, 2020	54 years, 172 days		Perpetrator of the Career Girls Murders. He was paroled in May 2020 as per the New York Department of Corrections. [98]
Tony Rawlins	December 28, 1955	April 17, 2010	54 years, 3 months, 20 days	Australia	Convicted of the "Kissing Point mutilation murder", strangling a 12-year-old girl who rejected his advances. Was Australia's longest-serving prisoner when he died, with 18 parole applications being rejected. [99]
Willie Gaines Smith	1960	2014	54 years, 105 days	United States	Longest-serving prisoner in Kentucky. Rejected parole because no nursing home accepted him and he would receive better medical care in prison but was released on medical parole in 2014. Died at the age of 76 in December 2014. [100]
Patricia Krenwinkel	April 28, 1971	ongoing	54 years, 121 days	United States	Member of Manson family; longest-serving female prisoner in US penal history.
Arthur Norman Duncan	June 3, 1970	August 13, 2024	54 years, 68 days	United Kingdom	Convicted of murder and rape in England when he was 18 in 1970, before later being transferred to Scotland. Died in prison at the age of 72. [101]
Jerry Lee Duffey	September 1970	ongoing	54 years	United States	Originally sentenced to 1,000 years in prison for robbing and raping a pregnant woman. [102] [103] His sentence was reduced to two life terms on appeal. [104]
Louis Mitchell	1967	October 5, 2021	54 years	United States	Imprisoned for raping a white woman, a crime which Mitchell said he did not do and has always maintained his innocence about. Sentenced to life in prison and resentenced and released on October 5, 2021. [105] [106]
Machal Lalung	1951	2005		India	Originally arrested for "causing grievous harm," Lalung was interned in a psychiatric hospital until he was declared "fully fit" in 1967. However, he was mistakenly transferred to prison rather than released, and forgotten about until 2005. He was released without ever being tried or convicted, aged 77. [107]
Robert Stroud	1909	1963		United States	Known as "the Birdman of Alcatraz" for the research on bird diseases that he conducted alone in his cell, although he actually did it at Leavenworth Penitentiary before he was moved to the federal prison in Alcatraz Island.
Daniel Wheeler	March 1971	April 2025			Originally sentenced to life without parole for murdering his 16-year-old pregnant ex-girlfriend in 1970 when he was 17. [108] [109] Resentenced and released in April 2025. [110]
Jerry Lee Hansen	May 20, 1965	May 11, 2019	53 years, 11 months, 21 days		Longest-serving prisoner in Nebraska. Jailed for the murder of his parents in law and the attempted murder of his then wife. Disarmed a corrections officer and shot his ex-wife a second time in 1973, paralyzing her for which he received two 20 years to life sentences, he had been eligible for parole since 1977 and had been turned down, time after time. Committed suicide at the age of 82 while in the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution. [111] [112] [113]
Michael Wilber Wade	October 28, 1966	September 2, 2020	53 years, 311 days		When he was 19, he killed a 16-year-old girl he had met that day. The death penalty was a common sentence for murder in Florida at the time, but the jury spared him. [114] Died in prison. [115] [116]
Tex Watson	October 21, 1971	ongoing	53 years, 310 days	United States	Second-in-command of the Manson Family and leader in the Cielo Drive and Tate–LaBianca murders.
Carlos Eduardo Robledo Puch	1972		53 years, 204 days	Argentina	Serial killer. Longest-serving prisoner in South America.
George Nassar	June 26, 1965	December 3, 2018	53 years, 161 days	United States	Convicted of two murders, he was originally sentenced to death in 1965, but in 1966 his sentence was struck down and replaced with life imprisonment. Also known for being the person to whom Albert DeSalvo allegedly confessed to being the Boston Strangler in late 1965.
Bruce M. Davis	April 21, 1972	ongoing	53 years, 128 days	United States	Member of the Manson Family involved in the murders of Hinman and Donald Shea. He was recommended for parole in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2017; every time the sitting Governor ordered a review or reversed the decision.
Edward Arthur Webb	October 22, 1963	January 19, 2017	53 years, 89 days	United Kingdom	Beat a woman to death with an axe. Died in prison. [117] [ better source needed ]
Harry Hebard	October 4, 1968	December 24, 2021	53 years, 81 days	United States	Murdered five of his relatives, including three children, in 1963. [118] Died in prison.
James Albert Findley	February 1971	ongoing	53 years	United States	Convicted in 1971 of the murder of a 16-year-old, Findley was originally sentenced to death. In 1972, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when the US Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty. He is eligible for parole, with his next hearing in June 2028. [119] [120] [121]
Giulio d'Este	1506	1559	53 years	Ferrara	Illegitimate son of Ercole I d'Este, duke of Ferrara. Organized a failed plot aimed at eliminating his half-brothers duke Alfonso I d'Este and cardinal Ippolito d'Este. Sentenced to death, his penalty was commuted to life imprisonment. Freed by his grandnephew Alfonso II d'Este in 1559 at the age of 81.
Julia Belle Rollins	August 2, 1972	ongoing	53 years, 25 days	United States	Convicted of murder for shooting a 24-year-old woman in a bar. [122]
Peter Woodcock	1957	2010	52 years, 328 days	Canada	Declared not guilty by reason of insanity and recluded in a mental hospital for the murder of three young children. Murdered a fellow patient in 1991. Died in 2010, still interned.
Peter Antonovich of Brunswick	March 30, 1745	January 13, 1798	52 years, 289 days	Russia	Born in captivity after his brother, Emperor Ivan VI of Russia was overthrown by Elizabeth of Russia. Released in 1780 to Denmark on the condition that he would live under house arrest until his death.
				Denmark
Alfred "Alf" Vincent	1968	February 18, 2021	52 years	New Zealand	Man held in preventive prison for the longest time in the world: sentence was imposed for assaulting five boys. Suspected of having molested between 200 and 500 children. [123] He was held in Rimutaka Prison's high-dependency unit due to suffering from dementia and a heart condition. [124] He was released in February 2021. [125]
William MacDonald	May 1963	May 12, 2015		Australia	English-born serial killer known as "the Sydney Mutilator." Oldest and longest-serving prisoner in New South Wales at the time of his death.
Jimmy Ennis	November 9, 1964	2016		Ireland	Longest held prisoner in Ireland. Sentenced to life in prison for fatally bludgeoning a farmer in County Cork following a dispute. He had just finished a prison term for attacking a woman with a hatchet. [126] He refused to apply for release until he was freed in 2016, aged 87. [127]
Winston Moseley	July 7, 1964	March 28, 2016	51 years, 291 days	United States	Murderer of Kitty Genovese. Died in prison. [128]
Edmund Kemper	November 8, 1973	ongoing	51 years, 292 days	United States	Serial killer convicted of murdering eight women, including his mother. He was previously institutionalized as a juvenile for murdering his grandparents.
Wayne Coleman	January 24, 1974		51 years, 215 days		Sentenced to six consecutive terms of life with parole for his role in the Alday family murders. [129] [130] [131] [132] [133]
John Joseph Kenny	June 18, 1974		51 years, 70 days	Ireland	Bludgeoned an elderly woman with a candlestick during a break-in, when he was 19 years old. He has been allowed outside prison several times and returned every single one after breaching the terms of his release. [134]
Elmer Wayne Henley	July 16, 1974		51 years, 42 days	United States	Accomplice of serial killer Dean Corll in the Houston Mass Murders, found guilty of committing seven of them. The crimes were discovered when Henley shot Corll in self defence.
Ian Brady	1966	2017	51 years, 10 days	United Kingdom	Perpetrator of the Moors murders together with his girlfriend, Myra Hindley, who died in prison in 2002. Longest-serving prisoner in the United Kingdom at the time of his death.
Staf Van Eyken	1974	ongoing	51 years	Belgium	Convicted for 3 murders. [135] [136]
Walter B. Kelbach	1967	2018	51 years	United States	Spree killer who murdered five people and raped two women in Utah in December 1966 with his cousin Myron Lance. Kelbach died in August 2018 of natural causes. [137]
Theo H.	1960	2011		Netherlands	Involuntarily committed when he was 17 after a sex offense in which the victim was a minor. He relapsed twice while on leave, in 1967 and in 1985. Died in 2018. [138]
Sam Glass	1967	2018		United Kingdom	He was ordered to be detained indefinitely in 1967 after he indecently assaulted, stabbed and strangled a five-year-old girl. [139]
David Brault	1969	July 13, 2020		Canada	Was convicted in 1969 of the shooting deaths of two men, as well as two sexual assaults and several other offences. [140]
Willie Ingram	1970	2021		United States	Convicted of armed robbery and aggravated rape in 1970, he spent 51 years in prison in Louisiana, before being released in 2021. [141]
Carl Macedonio	June 12, 1972	April 25, 2023	50 years, 317 days	United States	Raped and murdered an 18-year-old woman in New York in 1971. He was sentenced in 1972 to 33 years to life, and was paroled in April 2023. [142]
John Weber	1926	1976	50 years		Originally an immigrant from Austria-Hungary, Weber was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the fatal shooting of his 18-month old daughter, which he served in Columbus' Ohio Penitentiary. In 1972, Governor John J. Gilligan commuted his sentence to murder in the second degree. This made him eligible for parole, but he never benefited from it. Was the oldest prisoner in the United States at the time of his death, only a few months from his 100th birthday. [143] [144]
Hugo Pinell	1965	August 12, 2015 [145]			Nicaraguan national sentenced to life in prison for rape. Released on August 12, 2015
John Franzese	March 1967	June 23, 2017			Italian-American mobster of the Colombo crime family who was sentenced to 50 years in prison for masterminding several bank robberies. He broke parole and was returned to jail six times, the last time when he was 92 years old. [146] At the time of his release at the age of 100, he was the oldest federal prisoner in the United States and the only centenarian ever.
Bobby Gene Griffin	May 27, 1968	June 6, 2018			Juvenile lifer in the state of Michigan who at the age of 16 along with three other male teens forced their way into Minnie Peapples' Benton Harbor home seeking money. Griffin beat, stabbed and sexually assaulted Peapples, who bled to death after the teens fled for which Griffin was sentenced to life without parole until he was resentenced on July 10, 2017, to 40 to 60 years and he was paroled on June 6, 2018. [147]
James Ferguson	1969	2019		United Kingdom	Serial child rapist who was detained in Carstairs State Hospital for fifty years. [148]
Gloria Williams	1971	January 25, 2022		United States	Williams and several others robbed a grocery store with a toy gun and, after a struggle with the store owner, who was armed, someone in her group shot the owner with his own gun. [149] Williams was paroled in January 2022. [150]
Ronald Evans	March 1979	2019	40 Years (54 total years served)	United Kingdom	Released murderer Ronald Evans aka 'The Clifton Rapist' was jailed for five indecent assaults in Bristol between July 1977 and December 1978. In 2004, following a cold case investigation he admitted a rape and an indecent assault. He was jailed again before release in 2019. Evans was jailed again in 2023 following a further sexual assault in London. [151]

Longest spells in solitary confinement

The sentence duration refers to the time spent in solitary confinement, regardless of time spent in normal prison before or after. Death row prisoners, who are usually also held in isolation, are not included.

More than 40 years

Name	Sentence start	Sentence end	Sentence duration	Country	Description
Walerian Łukasiński	1822	1868	46 years	Congress Poland	Polish military officer suspected of harboring anti-Russian sentiments, kept in prison even after completing his original sentence of 14 years.
				Russia
Hugo Pinell	1969	2015		United States	Murdered by another inmate two weeks after his solitary confinement was lifted.
Albert Woodfox	1972	2016	44 years		Placed in solitary confinement for the murder of a corrections officer. Released in 2016.
Mark David Chapman	August 24, 1981	ongoing	44 years, 3 days	United States	Placed in solitary confinement after pleading guilty to murdering John Lennon on December 8, 1980.
Robert Stroud	1916	1959	42 years	United States	Imposed for murdering a prison guard at USP Leavenworth.
Robert Maudsley	1983	ongoing	41 years	United Kingdom	Serial killer imprisoned in 1977. Placed in a specially built solitary cell after killing three other prisoners.
Jesse Pomeroy	1875	1917	41 years	United States	See above.
Woo Yong-gak	1958	1999		South Korea	Captured during a North Korean commando raid after the armistice. Released to North Korea in 2000.
Herman Wallace	1972	2013		United States	Placed in solitary confinement for the murder of the same corrections officer as Woodfox. Released in 2013, when he had advanced liver cancer, but re-indicted two days later. Died the next day before he could be arrested.

30–39 years

Name	Sentence start	Sentence end	Sentence duration	Country	Description
Thomas Silverstein	October 22, 1983	May 11, 2019	35 years, 201 days	United States	Called "America's most isolated man." Placed in solitary confinement for the murder of two inmates and a guard during a prison riot. Died on May 11, 2019
Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova	1768	1801	33 years	Russia	Countess convicted of killing 38 female serfs by beating and torturing them to death. Imprisoned at Ivanovsky Convent in Moscow; for the first 11 years, she was chained in a basement dungeon without a window and only given a candle during meals.[ citation needed ]

20–29 years

Name	Sentence start	Sentence end	Sentence duration	Country	Description
Yolanda Saldívar	1995	ongoing	29 years, 305 days	United States	Found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez on March 31, 1995. Placed in solitary confinement after receiving numerous death threats from fellow inmates.
Man in the Iron Mask	1669?	1675	c. 29 years	France	A mysterious prisoner kept in a solitary cell with double doors (to mute conversations) and forced to wear a black velvet mask at all times, following direct orders of Louis XIV. Much debate exists about the identity of the prisoner (variously called Marchioly or Eustache Dauger) and the reason of his confinement. After his death, myths arose claiming that the prisoner wore a full-headed iron mask, rather than velvet, and that two Musketeers of the Guard were posted with orders to shoot him if he removed it. The solitary spell was interrupted between 1675 and 1680, when the man in the mask served the also imprisoned Nicholas Fouquet, Marquis of Belle-Îlle as his valet.
	1680	1703
Robert Hillary King	1972	2001	29 years	United States	Placed in solitary confinement for the same murder as Woodfox and Wallace, until his original conviction was overturned.
Luis Felipe	1997 [152]	ongoing	28 years, 194 days	United States	Leader of the New York chapter of the Latin Kings. Convicted and placed in solitary confinement for ordering several murders when he was already in prison for other offenses.
Salvatore "Totò" Riina	January 15, 1993	November 17, 2017	24 years, 306 days	Italy	Reputed "boss of bosses" of the Sicilian mafia, nicknamed "The Beast". Believed to have ordered over 150 murders in Italy. Died in prison, aged 87. [153] [154]
Mary Mallon	March 27, 1915	November 11, 1938	23 years, 229 days	United States	First known case of asymptomatic carrier of typhoid. Quarantined for life in New York City's North Brother Island after refusing to have her gallblader removed or stop working as a cook.
Ian Manuel	1993	2016	23 years		Tried as an adult and sentenced to life for non-fatally shooting a woman during a robbery, when he was 13 years old. His sentence was reduced after it was ruled that imprisoning minors who had not killed anyone for life was unconstitutional. Released. [155] [156]
Ivan VI of Russia	December 6, 1741	July 16, 1764	22 years, 7 months, 10 days	Russia	Overthrown when he was one year old and imprisoned in solitary until he was assassinated at the age of 23, in order to prevent his release.
Frank De Palma	February 3, 1992	March 11, 2014	22 years, 36 days	United States	Kept in solitary for attacking a guard while serving a 42+ years stay in a Nevada prison for murder and other offenses. Released in 2018. [157]
Leonora Christina Ulfeldt	1663	1685	22 years	Denmark	Daughter of Christian IV of Denmark. Confined to a small cell in the Blue Tower of Copenhagen Castle by her brother, Frederick III, accused of treason. Released after 22 years by Christian V, she joined a convent where she died in 1698, aged 76.
Russell Melvin Shoats	1992	2014		United States	Member of the Black Unity Council, Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of a police officer. Shoats spent his time in solitary in a 7-by-12 foot cell, always illuminated by lights, for 23 or 24 hours a day.
Anthony Gay	1994	2016			Originally imprisoned in Illinois for stealing a dollar bill and a hat, was added time to his sentence for disciplinary reasons until he served 24 years and almost all in solitary. [158]
Clayton Fountain	1983	2004	21 years		Marine sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his staff sergeant in 1974, and placed in solitary after murdering three other prisoners and one corrections officer. Converted to Catholicism and was accepted as a lay brother of the Trappist monks posthumously.
Rudolf Hess	October 1, 1966	August 17, 1987	20 years, 320 days	West Berlin (Allied occupation)	Deputy Führer of Nazi Germany sentenced to life in prison for "crimes against peace". He was the only remaining prisoner of Spandau Prison after the release of all other inmates, until his suicide at the age of 93.
John T. Downey	1952	1973	20 years, 3 months and 14 days	China	CIA agent captured along Richard Fecteau in Manchuria after their plane was shot down by Chinese forces during the Korean War; the mission was part of a failed attempt to establish an anti-Communist guerrilla in mainland China. Released after the thaw of Chinese-American relations. There was a three-week break in their solitary confinement in 1955, when they were allowed to interact with the crew of a downed American B-29. [159]
Giovanni Passannante	1879	1899	20 years	Italy	Attempted assassin of Umberto I of Italy. Locked in a dark, small cell below sea level in Portoferraio, Isle of Elba. His conditions became a scandal after they were revealed and he was moved to an asylum in Montelupo Fiorentino, where he died in 1910.

10–19 years

Name	Sentence start	Sentence end	Sentence duration	Country	Description
Richard Fecteau	1952	1971	19 years	China	CIA agent captured along John T. Downey in Manchuria after their plane was shot down by Chinese forces during the Korean War; the mission was part of a failed attempt to establish an anti-Communist guerrilla in mainland China. Released after the thaw of Chinese-American relations. There was a three-week break in their solitary confinement in 1955, when they were allowed to interact with the crew of a downed American B-29. [159]
Viktor Ilyin	1969	1988		Soviet Union	Attempted assassin of Leonid Brezhnev. Released in 1990.[ citation needed ]
Ian Manuel	1990	2008	18 years	United States	Convicted of non-fatally shooting a woman in the face during a botched robbery when he was 13 years old. released from prison in 2016 [160]
Clarence Carnes	1946	1963	17 years		Placed in solitary for his part in the "Battle of Alcatraz". The measure ended with the closing of the prison.
Wazir Ali Khan	December 1799	May 15, 1817		British India	Former Nawab of Awadh held in an iron cage at Fort William until his death, for leading the Massacre of Benares.
Christopher Scarver	1994	2010	16 years	United States	Placed in solitary confinement for the double murder of Jeffrey Dahmer and Jesse Anderson. All three men were serving life sentences for murder at the time of the crime.
Rathakrishnan Ramasamy	1984	1996	12 years	Singapore	Placed in solitary confinement for 12 years at Changi Prison for the 1981 murder of Kalingam Mariappan in Singapore. Ramasamy was 16 when he helped his older friend to assault and burn the 45-year-old victim to death. The friend, 22-year-old lorry driver Ramu Annadavascan, was sentenced to death and executed by hanging on 19 September 1986. As he was aged under 18 at the time of the crime, Rathakrishnan was spared the death sentence and instead sentenced to indefinite detention at the President's Pleasure. Rathakrishnan was released in September 2001 after serving 20 years behind bars. [161] [162] [163]
Mordechai Vanunu	1987	March 12, 1998	11 years	Israel	Israel nuclear whistleblower
Abdullah Öcalan	February 1999	November 2009	10 years, 9 months	Turkey	Leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, sentenced to death for treason and separatism in 1999, commuted to a life sentence after Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2002. He was the only inmate of İmralı prison until 2009.

Longest spells on death row

These prisoners were sentenced to death rather than prison, but their execution was stalled for a prolonged time due to different reasons.

More than 40 years

Name	Sentence start	Sentence end	Sentence duration	Country	Description
Nobuo Oda	December 14, 1968	ongoing	56 years, 256 days	Japan	See above.[ citation needed ]
Tommy Zeigler	July 16, 1976		49 years, 42 days	United States	Quadruple murder of Eunice Zeigler, Perry and Virginia Edwards, and Charlie Mays. He is both Florida's and the USA's longest-serving death row inmate. [164]
Virgil Delano Presnell Jr.	October 19, 1976		48 years, 312 days		Longest-serving death row inmate in Georgia. [165] Sentenced to death for kidnapping, raping and murdering an 8-year-old girl. [166] [167]
Richard Gerald Jordan	March 2, 1977	June 25, 2025	48 years, 115 days	United States	Sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of a woman in Mississippi. Jordan was Mississippi's longest-serving death row inmate. [168] He was executed by lethal injection on June 25, 2025. [169] [170]
James Franklin Rose	May 13, 1977	ongoing	48 years, 106 days	United States	Sentenced to death in Florida for killing the daughter of his ex-girlfriend. In 2018, he was sentenced to life without parole for the rape and murder of a woman in 1975. [171]
Harvey Earvin	October 26, 1977		47 years, 305 days		Longest held prisoner on death row in Texas. Sentenced to death for shooting and killing a service station attendant in 1976. [172] [173]
Clarence Curtis Jordan	September 12, 1978		46 years, 349 days		Sentenced for the 1977 murder of a market clerk in Texas. [174]
Earl Lloyd Jackson	March 19, 1979		46 years, 161 days		Sentenced to death for the murder and robbery of 2 elderly widows in August and September 1977. [175]
Arturo Daniel Aranda	May 18, 1979		46 years, 101 days		Sentenced for the 1976 murder of a police officer in Texas. [176]
David Ghent	October 30, 1979		45 years, 301 days		Sentenced to death for the February 1978 rape and murder of an acquaintance. [177]
Iwao Hakamata	September 11, 1968	March 27, 2014	45 years, 197 days	Japan	Granted a retrial and found innocent after it was determined that the evidence used to convict him the first time was forged.
Bryan Frederick Jennings	May 7, 1980	ongoing	45 years, 112 days	United States	Jennings was found guilty of kidnapping, raping and murdering a six-year-old girl named Rebecca Kunash in 1979 at Merritt Island, Florida. Jennings was first sentenced to death in 1980, before his appeal led to two separate re-trials that all ended with a death sentence in 1982 and 1986 respectively.
Raymond Riles	April 2, 1976	April 14, 2021	45 years, 12 days	United States	One of the longest held prisoners on death row in Texas. His execution was stayed several times from 1980 onward for different reasons. He was later diagnosed with mental problems and is considered not mentally fit to be executed. He tried to commit suicide in 1985 by setting his jail cell on fire. His death sentence was thrown out on April 14, 2021. [178] He was sentenced to life imprisonment on June 9, 2021. [179]
Richard Dean Turner	1980	March 23, 2024	44 years		Shot and killed a couple during a burglary in California in 1979, whilst under the influence of alcohol and drugs. He died in prison in 2024. [180]
Albert Greenwood Brown	March 2, 1982	ongoing	43 years, 178 days	United States	Pedophile who abducted and murdered a 15-year-old on her way to school while being on parole for molesting another girl in California. Brown was scheduled for execution on September 30, 2010, but it was put on hold due to lethal injection supplies being unavailable at the time.
Hiroshi Sakaguchi	June 18, 1982		43 years, 70 days	Japan	United Red Army member who murdered two police officers and an innocent bystander in a shootout with police in 1972
Thomas Eugene Creech	January 1, 1983		42 years, 238 days	United States	Sentenced to death for killing a fellow prisoner while incarcerated in Idaho 1981. Creech had been previously on death row for another murder, but his death sentence was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 1977 after appeal.
Kayle Barrington Bates	March 11, 1983	August 19, 2025	42 years, 161 days		Sentenced to death for abducting and murdering a woman from an insurance office where she worked. Executed on August 19, 2025. [181]
Ronald Allen Smith	March 22, 1983	ongoing	42 years, 158 days		Only Canadian on death row in the United States and one of two death row inmates in Montana. Smith, along with another man, murdered two Native American men who offered them a ride while the former were under the influence of LSD. His accomplice accepted a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, while Smith refused and requested capital punishment for himself.
George Banks	June 22, 1983		42 years, 66 days		Spree killer sentenced to death for the murders of twelve people in the 1982 Wilkes-Barre Shootings, including his five children. Although his insanity defence was rejected at the trial, he was later ruled incompetent to be executed in 2004 and 2010.
Michael Morales	June 30, 1983		42 years, 58 days		Raped and murdered a 17-year-old girl who was in a love triangle with Morales's cousin and another man in California; his cousin was sentenced to life in prison as inductor. Though Morales did not deny his guilt, doubts about the evidence presented in his trial mounted as his scheduled execution for February 21, 2006, came near. The execution was postponed indefinitely due to medical professionals refusing to participate in executions, as their presence is obligatory under California law.
Arthur Lee Giles	August 18, 1979	September 30, 2020	41 years, 43 days	United States	Was the longest-serving inmate on Alabama's death row, having been convicted of the 1978 murders of a couple in Blount County, Alabama. Giles died of pneumonia while on death row. [182]
Patrick McKenna	1980	April 19, 2021	41 years		Spent most of his adult life in prison for various violent crimes, and was sentenced to death for the murder of his cell mate. He died on death row in Nevada. [183]
David Joseph Carpenter	November 26, 1984	ongoing	40 years, 274 days	United States	Oldest death row inmate in California history. Sentenced to death for the murder of 2 women in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Later convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 5 others in Marion county. [184]
William Theodore Boliek Jr.	December 11, 1984		40 years, 259 days		Sentenced to death for the murder of an 18-year-old girl in Kansas City in 1983. In 1997, Boliek was granted a stay of execution by Governor Mel Carnahan. Carnahan died in a plane crash in 2000 and Boliek's case was not resolved. A court determined only Carnahan could overturn the stay, effectively leaving Boliek's case in permanent limbo. Governor Jay Nixon's office determined Boliek would not be executed and he will spend the remainder of his life in prison. Boliek is Missouri's longest-serving death row inmate. [185] [186] [187] [188]
Richard Delmer Boyer	December 14, 1984		40 years, 256 days		Fatally stabbed an elderly couple.
Douglas Stankewitz	October 12, 1978	May 3, 2019	40 years, 203 days	United States	Longest-serving death row inmate at California's San Quentin State Prison, a member of the Mono nation sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of a 22-year-old woman. Retried twice and sentenced to death on both occasions.Retried a third time and sentenced to life in prison without parole. [189]
Doug Clark	March 24, 1983	October 11, 2023	40 years, 201 days	United States	One of the couple known as the "Sunset Strip Killers", who raped and murdered six women in Los Angeles during the summer of 1980. His partner, Carol Bundy, died in prison in 2003. Clark died of natural causes at a medical facility in 2023. [190]
Kevin Cooper	May 21, 1985	ongoing	40 years, 98 days	United States	Career burglar sentenced to death for the murders of four members of the same family and attempted murder of two others during a home invasion in Chino Hills, California in 1983, shortly after he escaped from prison. Cooper was scheduled for execution on February 10, 2004, but it was postponed to allow DNA testing of the crime scene and getaway vehicle that did not exist at the time of his conviction. The results of both tests supported the case against Cooper.

30–39 years

Name	Sentence start	Sentence end	Sentence duration	Country	Description
Cesar Fierro	February 14, 1980	December 19, 2019	39 years, 307 days	United States	Mexican national arrested in Ciudad Juarez for the murder of a cab driver in El Paso and convicted in spite of no existing physical evidence linking him to the case. Formerly held on death row in Huntsville, Texas. His sentence was commuted to life in prison on December 19, 2019. [191] [192]
Murray Hooper	February 11, 1983	November 16, 2022	39 years, 278 days		Convicted of participating in the December 31, 1980, robbery and murders of William Patrick Redmond and his mother-in-law Helen Phelps and the attempted murder of Redmond's wife Marilyn. He was executed by lethal injection on November 16, 2022. [193] [194]
Malcolm Robbins	May 12, 1983	January 27, 2023	39 years, 260 days		Sentenced to death in 1983 for first degree murder in Santa Barbara County, California. [195]
Michael Owen Perry	January 8, 1986	ongoing	39 years, 231 days	United States	Murdered his parents, two of his cousins, and his 2-year-old nephew in Lake Arthur, Louisiana. Perry is Louisiana's longest-serving death row inmate. [196]
Danny Lee Hil	March 5, 1986		39 years, 175 days		Hill was one of the two people convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of 12-year-old Raymond Fife in Warren, Ohio. Only Hill, who was 18 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to death, and currently scheduled for execution on July 22, 2026. His accomplice Timothy Combs, who was 17 when the crime happened, was spared the death sentence and instead sentenced to life imprisonment; Combs died in prison in 2018. [197]
Douglas Stewart Carter	December 27, 1985	May 15, 2025	39 years, 243 days	United States	Killed an elderly woman during a burglary in Provo, Utah. Conviction overturned on May 15, 2025 awaiting retrial.
Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr.	May 1, 1986	ongoing	39 years, 118 days	United States	Beat a Marsing, Idaho woman and her nephew to death in July 1985. He was scheduled for execution on June 2, 2021, despite being terminally ill. [198] [199] He was granted a stay of execution on May 18, 2021, until a commutation hearing in November 2021. [200]
Tiequon Cox	May 7, 1986		39 years, 112 days		Member of the Crips sentenced to death for the hired mass murder of five relatives of former NFL player Kermit Alexander in their home. Cox was 18 at the time of the crimes.
Gary Alvord	April 9, 1974	May 19, 2013	39 years, 40 days	United States	Schizophrenic sentenced to death in Florida for the murder of three women over the price of one game of pool. Died of a brain tumor after several delays.
Richard Norman Rojem Jr.	July 15, 1985	June 27, 2024	38 years, 348 days		Sentenced for the July 1984 kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of his former stepdaughter, 7-year-old Layla Cummings. [201] Executed on June 27, 2024. According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Richard Rojem was the state's longest-serving death row prisoner at the time of his execution. [202] [203]
Lawrence Bittaker	March 24, 1981	December 13, 2019	38 years, 264 days		One of the two "Toolbox Killers" who kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered five teenage girls in southern California during a period of five months in 1979. Died of natural causes in 2019. His partner in crime, Roy Norris, was sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole after 30 years in exchange for testifying against Bittaker.
Thomas Knight	April 21, 1975	January 7, 2014	38 years, 261 days		Sentenced to death for the murders of three people in Florida. Knight murdered a couple in Miami in 1974 and later murdered a corrections officer while on death row in 1980. He was executed by lethal injection on January 7, 2014. [204]
Carey Dean Moore	June 20, 1980	August 14, 2018	38 years, 55 days		Sentenced to death for the murders of two taxicab drivers in Nebraska. He was executed by lethal injection on August 14, 2018. He was Nebraska's longest-serving death row inmate. [205]
Ralph Leroy Menzies	March 23, 1988	ongoing	37 years, 157 days	United States	Abducted and strangled a female gas station attendant in Kearns, Utah. Requested death by firing squad.
David Allen Raley	May 24, 1988		37 years, 95 days		Security guard who abducted, raped, beat, and stabbed two teenage girls in the abandoned Carolands mansion where he worked, before throwing them in a landfill. One of his victims died and the other survived.
Ronald Gray	June 29, 1988		37 years, 59 days		Convict held for the longest time ever on the US Military death row, a serial rapist and murderer who committed his crimes while stationed in Fort Bragg as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division.
Sadamichi Hirasawa	1950	1987	37 years	Japan	Confessed under torture to have committed the Teikoku Bank Incident of 1948, a mass poisoning of Imperial Bank employees that killed ten people. Hirasawa was never executed because no Justice Minister wanted to sign his death warrant, as all believed that he had been falsely charged. However, he was not granted a retrial either, and he was still in death row when he died from pneumonia in 1987.
David Earl Miller	March 17, 1982	December 6, 2018	36 years, 264 days	United States	Sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of 23-year-old intellectually disabled woman, Lee Standifer. Miller was executed by electric chair in December 2018. He was Tennessee's longest-serving death row inmate. [206]
Byron Lewis Black	March 10, 1989	August 5, 2025	36 years, 170 days	United States	Found guilty of the 1988 murders of his girlfriend and her two daughters in Nashville, Tennessee, and sentenced to death on March 10, 1989. Executed on August 5, 2025 at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
Bigler Jobe Stouffer II	July 22, 1985	December 9, 2021	36 years, 140 days	United States	Sentenced to death for the murder of Linda Reaves in 1985. Stouffer intended to murder another man named Douglas Ivens, the boyfriend of his wife, for Ivens's life insurance, but Ivens survived the shooting incident that killed Reaves, Ivens's other girlfriend. Stouffer, whose death sentence was reversed at one point before the courts reinstated the death sentence, was executed by lethal injection on December 9, 2021.
Brandon Astor Jones	October 17, 1979	February 3, 2016	36 years, 109 days		Sentenced to death for his involvement in the felony murder of a convenience store manager in Georgia. Was retried and sentenced to death again in 1997 because the jurors at the first trial had brought a Bible into the deliberation room. Oldest prisoner in Georgia at the time of his execution, aged 72.
James William Wilson Jr.	May 9, 1989	ongoing	36 years, 45 days	United States	Perpetrator of the 1988 Oakland Elementary School shooting; sentenced to death on May 9, 1989.
Tomiyama Tsuneki	1967	2003	36 years	Japan	Died of kidney failure in prison, at the age of 86. [207]
Cynthia Coffman	August 31, 1989	ongoing	35 years, 361 days	United States	Convicted for the murders of four women from October to November 1986. Coffman admits to committing the murders, but claims she suffered from battered-woman syndrome.
James Gregory Marlow
Donald Ray Middlebrooks	September 22, 1989	ongoing	35 years, 339 days		Found guilty and sentenced to death for the 1987 racially motivated murder of a 14-year-old African-American boy named Kerrick Majors.
Randy Steven Kraft	November 29, 1989	ongoing	35 years, 271 days		Sentenced to death for the rape and torture murder of 16 men committed between 1972–1983 suspected of committing up to 67 murders
Romell Broom	October 24, 1985	December 28, 2020	35 years, 65 days	United States	Abducted, raped, and strangled a 14-year-old girl returning from a football game in East Cleveland, Ohio, and also attempted to kidnap two of her friends. Survived an attempted execution by lethal injection on September 15, 2009, because the executioners could not find a suitable vein. He died in prison from COVID-19 complications on December 28, 2020. [208] [209] [210]
Oscar Franklin Smith	July 26, 1990	May 22, 2025	34 years, 293 days		Found guilty of the 1989 murders of his estranged wife and her two sons, and sentenced to death. Smith was the oldest death row inmate in Tennessee at the time of his execution.
Edmund Zagorski	March 27, 1984	November 1, 2018	34 years, 219 days		Sentenced to death by the state of Tennessee for the 1983 murders of two men, and was executed by electrocution in 2018.
Blanche Taylor Moore	January 18, 1991	ongoing	34 years, 221 days	United States	Convicted of poisoning her boyfriend, Raymond Reid, with arsenic. She is also suspected of killing three other members of her family.
Ronald Watson Lafferty	May 7, 1985	November 11, 2019	34 years, 188 days	United States	Self-proclaimed prophet from Utah who claimed to have been divinely mandated to murder a number of people starting with his sister-in-law and her baby daughter. A death sentence was overturned on the grounds that he was not competent to stand trial, but he was deemed competent, retried, and sentenced to death again in 1996. Lafferty had requested to be executed by firing squad.
Edward Harold Schad	December 27, 1979	October 9, 2013	33 years, 286 days		Oldest prisoner in Arizona death row at the time of his execution by lethal injection, aged 71. Sentenced to death for the murder and robbery of a 74-year-old man in 1978, while he was in parole for another murder ten years prior. [211] [212]
Pervis Tyrone Payne	February 16, 1988	November 18, 2021	33 years, 275 days		Murdered an acquaintance and her 2-year-old daughter. Payne was scheduled to be executed in December 2020, but was given a reprieve until April 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. [213] In September 2020, DNA testing was ordered to investigate his claims of innocence. [214] Payne was resentenced to two concurrent life sentences on January 31, 2022.
Henry Eugene Hodges	January 30, 1992	ongoing	33 years, 209 days	United States	Convicted serial killer sentenced to death for the murder of Ronald Bassett in Tennessee and given two life terms for killings in Tennessee and Georgia. Suspect behind at least five more killings.
Sakae Menda	March 23, 1950	July 15, 1983	33 years, 114 days	Japan	After being arrested for stealing rice, Menda was tortured until he confessed to the murders of a Buddhist priest and his wife, which he did not commit. He was not represented by a lawyer, no physical evidence linking Menda to the murders was ever produced, and the testimony of witnesses backing his alibi was deliberately kept out of his trial. In 1979 he was granted a retrial and in 1983 he was acquitted, becoming the first person in the History of Japan to be released from death row.
Jack Alderman	June 1975	September 16, 2008	33 years, 3 months	United States	Murdered his wife with a wrench in Georgia. Executed by lethal injection.
Bobby Joe Long	July 25, 1986	May 23, 2019	32 years, 302 days		Known as "The Classified Ad Rapist" or "The Adman Rapist", kidnapped, raped and killed at least ten women in Tampa Bay Area in Florida during an eight-month period in 1984. He was executed on May 23, 2019, by lethal injection.
Thomas Warren Whisenhant	September 7, 1977	May 27, 2010	32 years, 262 days		Sentenced to death for the murder of a convenience store clerk in Alabama. He later admitted to murdering a further three women in Mobile County. He was executed by lethal injection on May 27, 2010. At the time of his execution, he was Alabama's longest-serving death row inmate. [215]
Dayton Leroy Rogers	June 9, 1989	November 12, 2021	32 years, 156 days		Rogers was convicted in May 1989 for the murders of 23-year-old Lisa Marie Mock, 26-year-old Maureen Ann Hodges, 35-old Christine Lotus Adams, 20-year-old Cynthia Devore, 26-year-old Nondace "Noni" Cervantes, and 16-year-old Riatha Gyles. Removed from death row for the final time on November 12, 2021, due in part to a new law signed by Governor Kate Brown, which limited the amount of aggravating factors required for seeking the death penalty. [216]
Stephen Michael West	March 25, 1987	August 15, 2019	32 years, 143 days		Murdered a mother-daughter pair in Tennessee in 1986. Executed by the electric chair on August 15, 2019. [217]
Christopher Sepulvado	May 24, 1993	February 22, 2025	31 years, 274 days		Tortured and murdered his stepson in 1992. Sepulvado's execution was stayed several times due to legal issues, and originally, Sepulvado was scheduled to be executed on March 17, 2025, but he died of natural causes less than a month before he could be executed. [218] [219]
James H. Roane Jr.	June 1, 1993	December 23, 2024	31 years, 205 days		Convicted for the murders of multiple persons to expand the influence of their drug trafficking syndicate in Virginia between January 1992 and February 1992. Roane, Tipton and a third accomplice named Corey Johnson were sentenced to death by the US federal government, while the fourth man, Vernon Lance Thomas, was sentenced to life without parole. Johnson was executed by lethal injection on January 14, 2021. [220] [221] On December 23, 2024, outgoing President Joe Biden exercised his clemency powers and commuted the death sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row, including Roane and Tipton, and allowed them to serve life without parole. Roane and Tipton were the longest-serving prisoners on federal death row at the time of their pardon. [222]
Richard Tipton
Robert Brian Waterhouse	September 3, 1980	February 5, 2012	31 years, 155 days		Murdered and mutilated a woman in Florida while he was on parole from a life sentence for murder. Executed in 2012. [223]
Henry McCollum	1983	September 2, 2014	31 years		Longest-serving death row inmate in North Carolina. Sentenced for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, while his half-brother Leon Brown was sentenced to life in prison. Both men were intellectually disabled. They were exonerated following DNA tests and released. [224]
Larry Roy	August 30, 1994	ongoing	30 years, 362 days	United States	Dubbed the "Cheneyville Slasher", Roy was found guilty of the 1993 murders of his ex-girlfriend's husband and aunt in Cheneyville, Louisiana. Roy was convicted on July 19, 1994.
Willie Jerome Manning	November 8, 1994		30 years, 292 days		Convicted of abducting two college students, sexually assaulting one of them, and killing both of them. Manning was also convicted of two more murders, but was later exonerated.

False claims

Name	Sentence start	Sentence end	Sentence duration	Country	Description
Jean-Baptiste Mouron	1684	1784	100 years and 1 day	France	A man claimed in the 1934 edition of Ripley's Believe It or Not! to have been condemned to galleys for one hundred years and one day as a teenager, and lived to be released as a supercentarian after completing his sentence. [225] The source claimed by Ripley, Jean Marteilhe's Mémoires d'un protestant, condamné aux galères de France pour cause de religion references the arrest and sentence to galleys of 500 Huguenots in 1684 but not Mouron's story, and actually predates his supposed release. [226]

See also

• List of longest prison sentences
• List of prisoners with whole life orders
• List of long-term false imprisonment cases

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Other sources

• The Longest Prison Sentences Ever Served, A Blast From the Past, July 24, 2010. Lists the lengthiest sentences actually completed, with detailed case studies.