What is the price for that crime ? 25 years for two lives? Such a bargain !

 

Our justice system is set up so there are two options  - restitution where the criminal and the victim agree on some standard of making it right and state imposed punishment or rehabilitation. 
I wish to focus on the later.
Although it sees like a nice idea, let's toss out the idea of rehabilitation. It doesn't happen and only naive, pollyannaish views believe that it does. So let's focus on punishment. 
We have set up in our country a system of laws where, if someone does something there is a prescribe outcome of punishment, whether it be jail time or fines, which if unpaid, eventually lead to jail time.  
At some point in time, law makers have prescribed those jail times...two days, a month, a year, 10 years, 25 to life, life without parole, etc.   Sometimes these times are set in the legal terms.. " a misdemeanor punishable by not less that X days in jail " and sometimes the judge can set those terms. 
And some point in time we have set a value on the crime. For example " It can result in a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a fine of up to $25,000, and other penalties. (https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/consCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&ttl=30&div=0&chpt=9&sctn=23&subsctn=0)

So your crime, a first degree misdemeanor, is worth 5 years of your life. 
We do this with all crimes. Car theft, retail theft, assault, stalking, harassment, trespassing, etc. We assign a value to that crime in terms of your life or your wallet. 

What about murder? What is the the value that we assign to the taking of a life? 
In this article , "James Parker was granted parole after serving nearly 25 years for the 2001 stabbing deaths of Dartmouth University professors Susanne and Half Zantop". At 16 years old, he and a friend broke in robbed and stabbed to death these two Dartmouth professors.  ( https://www.foxnews.com/us/ivy-league-class-clown-killer-to-be-freed-after-nearly-25-years-behind-bars )
We, as a society have determined that the lives of two women are only  worth 25 years. 

We have more and more examples of killers, murderers being let out of jail and not serving even their MININAL sentence. In this case, this person stabbed to death someone was given 16 to life and only served 10 years! ( https://www.sacda.org/2024/04/convicted-murderer-granted-early-parole-after-serving-only-10-yrs-in-prison/  ).

At one point in time, the creators of our justice system believed that the taking of a human life was so bad, so horrible the ONLY price that could be paid was the taking of a human life as punishment hence the death penalty. No amount of jail time, no amount of fines or discomfort could offset what you did. No, it was your life as payment for your crime. 
We have lost the idea that human life is valuable and that crime is bad. 

People way the cost of items all the time in different terms than money usually time. If I lose a dime I'll look for it for 30 seconds and that's it. If I lose my wallet, I'll look all week for it. If my cat is sick and it'll cost $1000 dollars to operate but the cat is 17 years old and I say no, I've made the equivalency argument of saying that the month or year the cat has left is not worth $1000. We make these kind of judgments every day and the penalty for taking a life is what that country has determined the value of that life is. In this case, 21 years.