Telconi wrote:Ifreann wrote:And it's illegal for good reasons. And besides, if the threat of death doesn't deter people then the threat of torture and death hardly will.
That's your opinion, one that I don't share. That's a meaningless argument, deterrent punishments will never be fully effective, there will always be some psycho who is unfazed by any deterrent punishment. Being less than 100% effective doesn't disqualify a deterrent punishment from being used.
You have to ask yourself if you are morally right to torture someone and how effective deterrence it would be. You could be executed for petty thief in medieval times but it was often never followed upon.