Authored by: העורך Editor
Relevant bit from an old article:
And why is “making the execution a blood-thirsty spectacle for the masses” not a hiddur mitzvah of the true Torah’s deterrence strategy: “למען ישמעו ויראו”?! Isn’t it important to preserve some fear: עבוד מיראה ועבוד מאהבה וכולי?!
By the way, although an on-the-books death penalty doesn’t deter murderers, the rate of actual, (preferably public) executions does, in fact, deter murderers (see Dr. Walter Block’s executive summary of a revolutionary, new study of the numbers).