SANTA ANA, California — A federal judge sentenced three suspected leaders of a violent white supremacist gang to life terms yesterday, saying the sentences were the only just response to three decades of murders and attempted murders in some of the nation’s toughest prisons.Aryan Brotherhood member Barry “The Baron” Mills, 58, was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without possibility of parole, a sentence automatically imposed after a jury deadlocked earlier this year on the death penalty. Tyler “The Hulk” Bingham, 59, also escaped the death penalty but received three consecutive life terms without possibility of parole.

A third defendant, Edgar “The Snail” Hevle, was sentenced to three consecutive life terms. He had not been eligible for the death penalty.

The defendants have 10 days to file appeals with the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals.

The three were among the first defendants to stand trial as federal prosecutors used a six-year investigation to try to dismantle the Aryan Brotherhood.

The fourth defendant, Christopher Overton Gibson, 47, faces 20 years to life in prison for racketeering and conspiracy, but he is recuperating from back surgery and has not been sentenced.

Late last week, prosecutors dropped an effort to place rare and severe lifestyle restrictions on the men, asking US District Judge David O. Carter to prohibit visits, letters and phone calls to the convicts from anyone but their attorneys and keep writing tools, paper and previously viewed reading material out of their cells.

Instead, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Wolfe said in court papers the government likely would pursue the restrictions “administratively,” meaning they could be imposed by the Bureau of Prisons without a court hearing or judge’s order.

Similar bans have been imposed only 11 times in the history of the federal prison system. Inmates Zacarias Moussaoui, the suspected “20th hijacker” in the September 11, 2001, terror attack, and convicted Unabomber Ted Kaczynski are among those with such restrictions.

Yesterday, Carter said he was worried that Gonzales would impose the restrictions without ensuring that the Bureau of Prisons could enforce them, citing reports of a shortage of guards at the maximum-security prison where the men likely will serve their sentences.