“It just insures pleas to life without parole instead of life with parole.”
Until some left wing Governor decides to free up prison space by granting clemency, anyway.
L
“Life without parole” is a meaningless sentence. As you pointed out it actually says nothing about how long someone will be behind bars. They want to let them out, they will, they just won’t use the word “parole”. Last time I was on a jury in Texas we found out “life” meant 10 years. And a 40 year sentence actually translated to 5 years behind bars. The justice system lies freely to juries during sentencing in Texas.
And no executed criminal has ever committed another crime. Lots of “life without parole” criminals continue committing crimes after a brief pause when they are incarcerated.