"Winning" is relative, I guess.

I certainly wouldn't consider spending the rest of my life at the mercy of people I hate to be winning. Knowing that every morsel of food I receive was given to me at the discretion of my enemies would seem like losing to me. Going to the bathroom only when given permission. Receiving and sending mail only because my captors have deemed that particular letter acceptable. Having absolutely no influence on the world outside your jail cell.

If that is winning, as That Thing claims, then That Thing has a very low bar of expectations.

Would I have preferred the death penalty? Sure.

That Thing himself believes that killing a person is a legitimate method of achieving your goals. We should have held him to his own standard.

But as long as some idiot judge doesn't set him free in the future, the simple objective truth is that he placed himself in a position where either outcome was a loss.

Life in prison with nothing to think about but one's own irrelevance ain't no picnic.