so top penalty possible. life means life no parole. and from americas system of having FBI involved is obviously going to be federal level, so death penalty is possible
Well, I guess that the normal assumption for that penalty is about "a life for a life, a tooth for a tooth".
its not exactly just a assumption/normalisation of life for life..
for instance if it was a car accident, no motive, no malice, no bad intent. just a bad result due to bad luck, which lead to someones death.. the driver does not deserve 'life for life justice'
if someone chokes on food or has food poisoning due to a restaurant where customer dies. the chef does not deserve 'life for life justice'
many deaths at the result of another person do not deserve life for life justice..
however when dealing with radicalised, malicious, violent people whom have made a intentional decision to kill. thats a different story where the circumstances then lead to the deeper judgement
/sentencing decisions of higher required penalties..
this is where terms and known criteria such as: means
, motive, intent, opportunity, premeditation.. should determine the strength/severity of penalty
EG
the guy didnt just randomly strike a random person he didnt know, he knew the target he chose
the guy didnt just decide that day and just got some random object from campus to use as a instrument to suddenly rage out on
even things like it was not a sudden decision, he had time between even getting on the roof to change his mind/back out, but chose not to
the guy didnt just happen to be at the campus and realise kirk was there and get riled up. instead he had planned it days before, prepared a plan etc
think about it, the amount of time he had to:
mark the shells with messages is more than enough time for a normal person to realise their thoughts are stupid and back out
walk through campus to get to the roof is more than enough time for a normal person to realise their thoughts are stupid and back out
prepare the gun before hand(must have done an initial visit to hide gun on campus) is more than enough time to realise their thoughts are stupid
then walk through campus a second time (clenched fist but empty handed) to get to roof to perform the deadly act
even people with strong opinions can still have the mindset to know the limits between arguing/debating/disagreeing vs making a decision to kill
when someone has all opportunity and time to back out or come to some sense, but follows through with a plan.. that type of person should not be treated the same as a driver that only had 0.2seconds to react to a pedestrian who ran into a road