My comment as a Eurpean with a little experience of Germany is to say that their penal code clearly is imperfect (as are all such codes) but in general they have a vastly lower murder rate than the US, and therefore maybe, just maybe, their choice to give prisoners parole and not execute people makes something in their society work better.
It's worth consideration that the US has now got to it's 1,000th execution in the current cycle and has one of the highest (if not THE highest) murder rate of any "developed" country.
Which country has the tougher sentences?
Which country has the higher murder rate?
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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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