Alan Rickman is absolutely the correct answer. Such confidence in his acting and performance, for as villainous a character as he plays it honestly doesn't come across as scenery chewing as it so very well could have.

Nah. There's plenty of non-murder crimes that give people life. Drug dealing, robbing banks, Bernie Madoff's pyramid. Tons of crime revolving around money and such. People don't go- oh well they'll surely murder if they get life. Sometimes you got to let the sentence match the justice for the crime and not be scared about it escalating. Shit already escalates all the time with rape/murders.