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Originally Posted by Phage
I am not saying that someone who kills is insane, obviously there are some instances where a sane person would consider the risks or penalties for murder worth it. My point is that if they did not know it was wrong/against the law we would at least give them a lesser charge. Someone who is otherwise mentally stable but had no concept of right or wrong might be considered a sociopath, a form of mental sickness. The distinction is not that people who kill are insane, but that not knowing that killing was against the law/wrong would indicate insanity.
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There is a difference between a sane person considering murder in a fantasy and an unstable person planing murder, so let's get that out of the way. I suppose we all have let our baser nature get the best of us when we considered running that jerk in the Miata off the road for cutting you off. That is different than buying knives and rope in preperation for killing the guy in the Miata after following him home. Can both know what they are doing is wrong? Of course. Are they both sane because they know it's wrong? Nope. You do not have to be sociopathic in order to be found legally insane. I would argue that the second person is insane. Like I said before, I would argue that anyone who has ever cvommitted murder outside of self defence or accident is mentally and socially deficient in some way.
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Originally Posted by Phage
I wonder how much you can really "take back" any form of punishment. Obviously a fine is easy to refund but what about imprisonment? I don't know of any way to give people back their time.
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It's less 'taking back' and more 'allowing to reenter society and go on living'.
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Originally Posted by Phage
Another thing to consider is if the worst you can do to someone is life imprisonment it puts anyone who has been convicted of such a crime into a very dangerous position. Once a person had committed such a crime once they would have absolutely no reason not to kill again; what more are you going to do to them?
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If one has been given a life sentence, the only people he/she can murder are prison guards and staff, and other prisoners. A life term of solitary confinement without the possibility of parole would rule out further murders. I cannot morally justify the death penalty, so I am against it. If you have different morals, you're decision might be different. To each their own.