[MTVN]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Well a 25 year sentence would generally result in someone being out in like 12. Say you killed someone at 20 year old, you would be out just in time to enjoy the prime of your life. Even doing the full sentence you would be out by 45....likely under a new identity and everything too (as only really high profile cases get sentences like that). Life meaning life would mean you never saw the real world again...I would imagine thats a pretty big deterrant...for younger people at least.

I would personally say that spending my life locked up is worse than the death penalty.

Even in cases when they only get out after 12 years or so (and I'm not sure how frequent it actually is that prisoners only serve half their sentence), I wouldn't say they're in a position to "enjoy the prime of their life". It's forever known that they were a murderer, that will place huge limitations on everything they do and they have to try and accustom themselves back to the real world and (if they do feel this way) always have to live with what they've done. I'm not saying this to try and make you feel sorry for them, or make out they deserve any sympathy because they don't and those are the consequences of what they've done, but I just don't think it's the case that murderers get a really easy ride in life after being released

And I'm not sure I agree that being killed is better than spending your life in prison, but either way I still thinks it's the case that however much you try and toughen the punishment it probably won't stop someone killing another man if they were already going to do it. I don't think it's a coincidence that the countries with the most brutal justice system often have the most crime, and those with the most liberal have the least