How is a death with the possibility of legal recourse any better than one without? As far as I see, the point of legal recourse is to deter it from happening i

How is a death with the possibility of legal recourse any better than one without? As far as I see, the point of legal recourse is to deter it from happening in the first place, I.e. it is purely consequentialist. If you reject such consequentialist thinking, what's the point of having someone to blame?