Does US criminal law have the concept of crime aggregation/absorption?

[Martinus]

Incidentally, we also have (rather complex) rules on aggregation of sentences, as well. In short, the sort of "sentenced to 180 years in prison" is not possible under Polish law. You can only get:

1) between 1 and 15 years in prison,
2) exactly 25 years in prison,
3) life imprisonment.

If you get several sentences of the first kind, they are all served conurrently (although the court can increase the highest one, but not more than up to 15 years and subject to further restrictions), and if you get any of 2) or 3) they consume/absorb the lower grade sentences. You can also be serving only one 25 years or life imprisonment sentence at the same time, so if you get more than one, they merge into one.

For this reason, it is also usual to merge similar cases into one and proclaim one sentence (e.g. a guy who kills 10 people at various occassions and in circumstances that do not warrant this to be treated as a continuous crime, and then faces a trial, can be tried for all 10 murder counts, and will receive a single ruling which is still subject to the above rules, so he can get either up to 15 years in prison, or 25 years or life - and not for example two 15 year sentences).

[Martinus]

Or to be more specific, in the example I quoted, the court ruling may look like this:

"You defendant X are:
- aquited of charges of murdering person 1, 4 and 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10
- found guilty of murdering person 2, for which you are sentenced to 10 years in prison,
- found guilty of manslaughter of person 3, for which you are sentenced to 3 years in prison,
- found guilty of first degree murder of person 6, for which you are sentenced to 25 years in prison,
therefore you are given an aggregate sentence of 25 years in prison."

[The Minsky Moment]

I think the second rule (aggregation) I mentioned is more important though, as it seems you guys don't have it and yet noone addressed it.

it's hard to answer because the US has 53+ different criminal jurisdictions with different laws and rules.
Generally speaking, each separately identifiable offense can and often is chargeable separately, but it's hard to speak more concretely without a particular example in a particular jurisdiction.

On sentencing, sentences can run concurrently or consecutively; again the rules on that are pretty complex and vary by jurisdiction.

[Viking]

Even if this concept doesn't exist, isn't the same effect achieved by sentencing the prisoner to concurrent rather than consecutive terms in prison?

Not necessarily, especially not with respect to the aggregation rule.

How does it "Not necessarily" apply to absorption?

Aggregation seems to be a bit self evident as it seems to be a way of reducing paperwork unless there is a progressively stricter sentencing policy for larger and larger crimes (which doesn't seem to be the case anywhere).

[dps]

Incidentally, we also have (rather complex) rules on aggregation of sentences, as well. In short, the sort of "sentenced to 180 years in prison" is not possible under Polish law. You can only get:

1) between 1 and 15 years in prison,
2) exactly 25 years in prison,
3) life imprisonment.

If you get several sentences of the first kind, they are all served conurrently (although the court can increase the highest one, but not more than up to 15 years and subject to further restrictions), and if you get any of 2) or 3) they consume/absorb the lower grade sentences. You can also be serving only one 25 years or life imprisonment sentence at the same time, so if you get more than one, they merge into one.

For this reason, it is also usual to merge similar cases into one and proclaim one sentence (e.g. a guy who kills 10 people at various occassions and in circumstances that do not warrant this to be treated as a continuous crime, and then faces a trial, can be tried for all 10 murder counts, and will receive a single ruling which is still subject to the above rules, so he can get either up to 15 years in prison, or 25 years or life - and not for example two 15 year sentences).

I would assume that this doesn't apply to offenses committed after you've served your term for a previous crime.  That is, if you murder someone and serve 25 years, then murder someone else after you get out, the court isn't blocked from sentencing you to another 25 years for the second murder, right?