Up to about a year ago, I believed in CP as a permanent removal of a threat from the world. I had worked in Corrections for the State of New York and known an escapee who murdered a colleague of mine. Many of the inmates seemed barely human in the cognitive sense.

About a year ago, some genuine Muslim terrorists were convicted in Federal court in Brooklyn. There was a sentencing hearing and the conclusion was that, as any judicial termination would have been considered a death in process of Jihad, they were sentenced to multiple life sentences.

If we cannot in good conscience execute murderers who participate in terrorism, [because that is what they desire] with definite malice aforethought, how can we execute others? If the intent of punishment is to punish with no intent of penitence or correction, it certainly makes more sense to imprison than to execute.

The equation of imprisonment to torture is not exact but, until murderers can be reliably changed, it is more reasonable to keep them in durance vile. Not too long ago John Hinckley would have been executed. I believe society's needs are more closely met by incarceration than by execution.

The Talmudic interpretation is that the negative effect on the soul of the executioner is as significant as the effect of the execution on the being executed.