The question of Breiviks sanity is definitely unclear; his conflicting mental exam results suggest some ability to manipulate them. My wife says his release after the first ten years is solely at the courts discretion, but other factors come into play after 21 years, and Breiviks skill with psychologists makes that unsettling. The ruling makes his atrocities rational, though inexcusable, political acts rather than deranged; his motives rational, though disgusting, political policies rather than lunacy. Ruling him insane would have told any would-be copycats that similar behavior would be considered similarly insane, not a means to publicize and advance extremist politics. Of course, whether Breivik is sane is independent of the potential consequences of ruling he is, but those consequences nonetheless remain.

As to the sentence, I expect him to go the route of Charles Manson, who has been eligible for parole since 1978 and denied twelve times. According to Wikipedia, he did not even attend his last parole hearing (in April,) "where prison officials argued that Manson had a history of controlling behavior and mental health issues including schizophrenia and paranoid delusional disorder and was too great a danger to be released. It was determined that Manson would not be reconsidered for parole for another 15 years, at which time he would be 92 years old." He has been eligible for parole for over 30 years, but will rightly die in prison, and I expect Breivik will also.

The problem is, that expectation is no guarantee; Breivik could theoretically be on the street as soon as 2021. Personally, what bothers me most about that is that Norway does not allow consecutive sentences: Even though Breivik went on two distinct murder rampages, he is not subject to any greater penalty than if he had "only" murdered a single person. In a twisted but very real way, from the moment of his first killing he had a kind of "blank check" for further ones, because subject to no penalty beyond the first murders 21 year sentence. If he breaks out of prison, killing all guards in the process, there is no point even trying him again: He must be eligible for release in 2021, no matter how many people he kills in the interim. Consecutive sentences would change things dramatically; even capping murder sentences at 10-21 years, nearly 80 convictions would ensure Breivik dies in prison. Instead, he may serve 120 months for murdering 77 people, or a little less than 2 months/murder.

I would very much like that changed, and support life sentences without parole as strongly as I oppose the death penalty. This is a textbook example of why. I would not want Breivik executed, but do not want him to ever be free again: The risk he poses is simply too great. His methodical, meticulous and careful decade of planning these atrocities are a strong argument in favor of his sanity, and against ever releasing him. He joined a gun club to gain access to the most lethal guns legal in Norway—but waited YEARS before then purchasing one. His homemade uniform convince an off-duty cop on Utøya to approach him as a colleague, only to be shot in the head. Police never uncovered his weapons cache and detailed plans because, throughout his plotting, he carefully and consistently avoided any behavior that MIGHT draw police attention; he had never even received a traffic citation. Believing him insane is almost as difficult as believing he should ever again be free, because he remains competent to repeat the worst shooting massacre in history, and always will.