 Stanford's lawyers pressed for a sentence of 31 to 44 months and a maximum of 10 years; the former sentence, with credit for time served, could have allowed him to walk out of prison without further jail time.According to Peter Henning of "The New York Times", judges have been more willing to impose sentences for financial fraudsters that effectively amount to life sentences in recent years.The extent to which such frauds wreck people's lives, Henning wrote, amounts to "economic homicide," and such outsized sentences are a way to express society's anger at such conduct.