Comment by forapurpose

That is an ideal, maybe even one that I support, but after over 200 years and overwhelming evidence, you must concede that it does not work in practice.

> A man should not be punished because of his motivations. A man should only be punished for his actions.

To nitpick a little: The law absolutely looks at motivations. For example, pre-meditated murder (1st degree murder) is a worse crime than non-pre-meditated murder (2nd degree), which is worse than unintentional murder (3rd degree).