From what I've been told, the reason for the disparity is to discourage trying again or escalation. If attempted murder and murder have the same penalty, there

From what I've been told, the reason for the disparity is to discourage trying again or escalation. If attempted murder and murder have the same penalty, there's no reason for a psychopath to not attempt it again. On the net, it might even be better for them since dead people can't testify. I've heard a similar argument for why we should lower penalties for drug crimes. When people routinely have enough drugs laying around to be charged equivalently to murder, the law ceases to be a deterrent. There's no additional penalty for more crimes, because we've already maxed out the punishment. It's not like we're going to make them live to 270 so they can serve out their full sentence.