That capital punishment is not a deterrent simply goes to show that there a fatal (ha) flaw in the justification for it, leaving behind all the usual worries ab

That capital punishment is not a deterrent simply goes to show that there a fatal (ha) flaw in the justification for it, leaving behind all the usual worries about executing innocents, giving the state the power to kill those it wants to or even the cost. Either some criminals are not in a state of mind where any rational cost-benefit calculation is happening at all, or a considered cost-benefit calculation puts their own life below the perceived benefit of the act (maybe religiously motivated attacks, say). Alternatively they truly think they won't get caught, which, depending on the crime, place and competence might be the most rational reason. There is nothing that you can do so to deter these "irrational" crimes by just twiddling knobs on the sentence harshness generator.