I think the key is whether one accepts that there is no free will. If you did, then executing someone solely for whatever they did makes no sense, because: 1.

I think the key is whether one accepts that there is no free will. If you did, then executing someone solely for whatever they did makes no sense, because: 1. If you were in their place, you would've done the same thing (no free will). 2. You can imagine what you'd feel if in their place you'd hear the sentence, (then empathy would kick in). 3. “No man is completely useless; he can always serve as a bad example.” Then in an ideal world, we would have the knowledge, and resources to figure out what went wrong, and "fix" the abusive behaviour in the subject, making them a happy and productive member of society again. Of course we are living in an imperfect world, so this is not yet a viable solution..