I have watched every episode of the First 48 on A&E.

If you aren’t familiar with it, the show follows around homicide detectives from before they arrive on scene, through the first 48 hours of their investigation.

At the end, they typically update the case with “19 year old, Joe Smith was found guilty of 3 counts of murder.  He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole”.

Joe Smith could have shot 2 or 3 people during a robbery, but when I see “without parole” I still cringe.  In some sick way, I’m hoping that Joe “the mass murderer” Smith has a change of heart in prison and wins an appeal at 80 years old and gets to see the world again.

I struggle with the idea of forever, even in the most ridiculous scenarios, like joe random gangster on a crime reality show.

It must be a sickness.