We're getting ready to try a cap murder case (pre-life w/o parole). We have decided to not seek death for reasons that are irrelevant to this discussion. The defendant is already doing an agg life sentence. An influential person in the courthouse is telling my ada that the parole board pays no attention to stacking and it doesn't do any good to stack. This is news to me but sometimes changes occur and I don't get the memo. I know that we had a problem with stacking having any real effect many years ago but I thought that those problems were behind us. Am I wrong? Thanks.

I monitor stacked sentenced in my county through the parole notices we receive. As far as I can tell, the Parole Board is following the law and showing great respect for stacked sentences.

Stacking is a critical way to make sure that a defendant is punished for the new crimes and multiple serious crimes he committed. Sometimes, it is the only way to make sure that the defendant never gets a chance to hurt an innocent citizen again.