twenty to life
Decades behind bars
Twenty to life is a prison sentence with a minimum of twenty years before parole eligibility and a maximum of life imprisonment.
The phrase appears frequently in crime reporting and legal dramas: He got twenty to life for the murder.
Similar constructions exist for other minimums: ten to life, fifteen to life.
- prisonConfinement for offenders
- sentenceComplete thought, grammatically
- prison termLength of incarceration
- convictedJudged guilty of crime
- murderDeliberate unlawful killing
judge · criminal court · courtroom · bars · inmate · cell · felony · crime · hard time · gavel · jury · locked up · maximum security · state prison · penitentiary · appeal · warden · guilty
- prison sentencesprison term, jail time, sentence length, mandatory minimum, maximum sentence
- sentencingprison sentence, death row, consecutive sentences, probation, mandatory minimum
twenty to lifeacquittal
Formal clearing of charges
not guilty verdict · case dismissed · slap on the wrist · charges dropped · walk free
twenty to lifefreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · free as a bird · walking the streets · on the outside · exoneration
twenty to lifeacquittal
Formal clearing of charges
not guilty · case dismissed · charges dropped · exoneration · walk free
twenty, life, twenties, twentieth, lively, lifelong, lifetime, lifeless, lifelike