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.

Prisoners who served more than sixty years

Prisoners who served between fifty and sixty years

Prisoners who served between forty-four and fifty years

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.
NameSentence startSentence endSentence durationCountryDescription
Walerian Łukasiński1822186846 years Congress Poland
Russian Empire		See above.
Hugo Pinell1969201546 years USAMurdered by another inmate two weeks after his solitary confinement was lifted.
Pietro AcciaritoMay 29, 1897December 4, 194346 years, six months, 5 days Kingdom of ItalySee above.
Albert Woodfox1972201644 years USAPlaced in solitary confinement for the murder of a corrections officer. Released in 2016.
Robert Stroud1916195942 years USAImposed for murdering a prison guard in McNeil Island.
Jesse Pomeroy1875191741 years USASee above.
Woo Yong-gak1958199941 years South KoreaCaptured during a North Korean commando raid after the armistice. Released to North Korea in 2000.
Herman Wallace1972201341 years USAPlaced 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.
Mark David Chapman1981ongoing38 years, 234 days USPlaced in solitary confinement after pleading guilty to murdering John Lennon on December 8, 1980.
Robert Maudsley1983ongoing37+ years UKSerial killer imprisoned in 1977. Placed in a specially-built solitary cell after killing three other prisoners.
Thomas SilversteinOctober 22, 1983May 11, 2019 USACalled "America's most isolated man." Placed in solitary confinement for the murder of two inmates and a guard during a prison riot. Died May 11, 2019
Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova1768180133 years Russian EmpireCountess 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.
Man in the Iron Mask1669?1675c. 29 years Kingdom of FranceA mysterious prisoner kept in a solitary cell with double doors 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 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.
Man in the Iron Mask16801703c. 29 years Kingdom of FranceA mysterious prisoner kept in a solitary cell with double doors 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 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.
Robert Hillary King1972200129 years USAPlaced in solitary confinement for the same murder as Woodfox and Wallace, until his original conviction was overturned.
Salvatore "Totò" RiinaJanuary 15, 1993November 17, 2017 ItalyReputed "boss of bosses" of the Sicilian mafia, nicknamed "The Beast". Believed to have ordered over 150 murders in Italy. Died in prison, aged 87.
Yolanda Saldívar1995ongoing USFound 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.
Mary MallonMarch 27, 1915November 11, 1938 USFirst 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 Manuel1993201623 years USATried 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.
Luis Felipe1997ongoing USALeader 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.
Frank De PalmaFebruary 3, 1992March 11, 201422 years, 36 days USAKept in solitary for attacking a guard while serving a 42+ years stay in a Nevada prison for murder and other offenses. Released in 2018.
Leonora Christina Ulfeldt1663168522 years DENDaughter 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 Shoats1992201422 years USAMember 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 Gay1994201622 years USAOriginally 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.
Rudolf Hess1966198721 years West GermanyBecame the only prisoner in Spandau Prison after all the others completed their sentences or were pardoned.
Clayton Fountain1983200421 years USAMarine 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.
Giovanni Passannante1879189920 years Kingdom of ItalyAttempted 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.
John T. Downey1952197320 years, 3 months and 14 days ChinaCIA agents captured 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.
Richard Fecteau1952197119 years ChinaCIA agents captured 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.
Viktor Ivanovich Ilyin1969198819 years USSRAttempted assassin of Leonid Brezhnev. Released in 1990.
Clarence Carnes1946196317 years USAPlaced in solitary for his part in the "Battle of Alcatraz". The measure ended with the closing of the prison.
Christopher Scarver1994201016 years USAPlaced 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.

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.
NameSentence startSentence endSentence durationCountryDescription
Iwao HakamadaSeptember 11, 1968March 27, 2014 JapanGranted a retrial and found innocent after it was determined that the evidence used to convict him the first time was forged.
Raymond Riles1976ongoing USALongest held prisoner in death row in Texas. His execution was stayed several times since 1980, for different reasons. He was later diagnosed with mental problems and is as a result considered not mentally fit to be executed, but won't be moved out of death row either. He tried to commit suicide in 1985 by setting his jail cell on fire.
Richard Gerald Jordan1977ongoing USASentenced to death for the abduction and murder of a woman in Mississippi.
Douglas StankewitzOctober 12, 1978May 3, 2019 USAOldest 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.
Cesar FierroFebruary 14, 1980December 19, 2019 USAMexican 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 changed to life in prison on December 19, 2019.
Gary AlvordApril 9, 1974May 19, 2013 USASchizophrenic 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.
Lawrence BittakerMarch 24, 1981December 13, 2019 USAOne 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.
Albert Greenwood BrownFebruary 3, 1982ongoing USAPedophile 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.
Carey Dean MooreJune 20, 1980August 14, 2018 USASentenced 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.
Thomas Eugene CreechJanuary 1, 1983ongoing USASentenced 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.
Ronald Allen SmithMarch 22, 1983ongoing USAOnly 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.
Doug ClarkMarch 24, 1983ongoing USAOne 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 M. Bundy, died in prison in 2003.
Sadamichi Hirasawa1950198737 years JapanConfessed 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 wasn't granted a retrial either, and he was still in death row when he died from pneumonia in 1987.
George BanksJune 22, 1983ongoing USASpree 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 MoralesJune 30, 1983ongoing USARaped 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 26, 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.
David Earl MillerMarch 17, 1982December 6, 2018 USASentenced 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.
Brandon Astor JonesOctober 17, 1979February 3, 2016 USASentenced 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.
Tomiyama Tsuneki1967200336 years JapanDied of kidney failure in prison, at the age of 86.
Richard Delmer BoyerDecember 14, 1984ongoing USAFatally stabbed an elderly couple.
Ronald Watson LaffertyMay 7, 1985ongoing USASelf-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 has requested to be executed by firing squad.
Kevin CooperMay 21, 1985ongoing USACareer 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.
Romell BroomOctober 24, 1985ongoing USAAbducted, 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 couldn't find a suitable vein; he is next scheduled for June 17, 2020.
Edmund ZagorskiMarch 27, 1984November 1, 2018 USASentenced to death by the state of Tennessee for the 1983 murders of two men, and was executed by electrocution in 2018.
Douglas Stewart CarterDecember 27, 1985ongoing USAKilled an elderly woman during a burglary in Provo, Utah. Assigned lethal injection.
Gerald Ross Pizzuto, Jr.May 1, 1986ongoing USABeat a Marsing, Idaho woman and her nephew to death in July 1985.
Tiequon CoxMay 7, 1986ongoing USAMember 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.
Edward Harold SchadDecember 27, 1979October 9, 2013 USAOldest 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.
Sakae MendaMarch 23, 1950July 15, 1983 JapanAfter 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 AldermanJune 1975September 16, 200833 years USAMurdered his wife with a wrench in Georgia. Executed by lethal injection.
Bobby Joe LongJuly 25, 1986May 23, 2019 USAKnown 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.
Ralph Leroy MenziesMarch 23, 1988ongoing32 years and 301 days USAAbducted and strangled a female gas station attendant in Kearns, Utah. Requested death by firing squad.
David CarpenterMay 10, 1988ongoing USAKnown as the "Trailside Killer", killed at least ten hikers and attacked another one in state parks near San Francisco. He was attributed to a 1979 murder after a DNA match in December 2009.
David Allen RaleyMay 24, 1988ongoing USASecurity 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 GrayJune 29, 1988ongoing USAConvict 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.
Robert Brian WaterhouseSeptember 3, 1980February 5, 2012 USAMurdered and mutilated a woman in Florida while he was on parole from a life sentence for murder.
Henry McCollum1983September 2, 201431 years USALongest serving death row inmate in North Carolina. Sentenced for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, while his half-brother was sentenced to life in prison. Both men were exonerated by DNA and released.