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After reading everyone's responses and responding myself, I've realized that I'm really caught up on the murder aspect. I think my revised opinion is that if y

After reading everyone's responses and responding myself, I've realized that I'm really caught up on the murder aspect. I think my revised opinion is that if you intentionally murder someone without a damn good reason, you should spend life in prison. This can include second degree murder, which is often not life in prison in the US (And also happens to line up with the OP scenario).

abdullahkhalids 6y ago
Happy that someone changed their mind. You asked a very good question. I don't think there are any easy answers to it. Crime hurts people and creates lots of strong emotions, so our instincts on what is best for society regarding crime are not very reliable. A lot of conversation needs to happen on this, and we need to constantly reevaluate our positions.
tomjen3 6y ago
Suppose the person didn't commit murder, but had intentionally and violently raped a ten year old? We can't make the punishment the same, or he would just murder her, yet I don't think such a person should every be let out.
- thelean12 6y ago
  I didn't want to dive down away from murder, because then I'll have to pick my "line". I'm not prepared to do that for various reasons. For example, I don't know the punishments for the crime you mentioned. Murder is the "easiest" crime to use to make my arguments. And even then I have to specify stuff like "intentional without a damn good reason".
  - crispyporkbites 6y ago
    Every case is nuanced. You can’t say murder == life without screwing something up in the system. It’s not simple or trivial to solve. Luckily many places around the world solve it differently so we can look at those systems and observe.
- Infinitesimus 6y ago
  > We can't make the punishment the same, or he would just murder her, yet I don't think such a person should every be let out. Do you believe people can change? Or perhaps more generally, what do you think the purpose of a prison should be when considering rehabilitation vs punishment?

abdullahkhalids 6y ago

Happy that someone changed their mind. You asked a very good question. I don't think there are any easy answers to it. Crime hurts people and creates lots of strong emotions, so our instincts on what is best for society regarding crime are not very reliable. A lot of conversation needs to happen on this, and we need to constantly reevaluate our positions.

tomjen3 6y ago

Suppose the person didn't commit murder, but had intentionally and violently raped a ten year old? We can't make the punishment the same, or he would just murder her, yet I don't think such a person should every be let out.

thelean12 6y ago
I didn't want to dive down away from murder, because then I'll have to pick my "line". I'm not prepared to do that for various reasons. For example, I don't know the punishments for the crime you mentioned. Murder is the "easiest" crime to use to make my arguments. And even then I have to specify stuff like "intentional without a damn good reason".
- crispyporkbites 6y ago
  Every case is nuanced. You can’t say murder == life without screwing something up in the system. It’s not simple or trivial to solve. Luckily many places around the world solve it differently so we can look at those systems and observe.
Infinitesimus 6y ago
> We can't make the punishment the same, or he would just murder her, yet I don't think such a person should every be let out. Do you believe people can change? Or perhaps more generally, what do you think the purpose of a prison should be when considering rehabilitation vs punishment?