Comment by rgblambda

>I don’t believe we had that button at the founding

Every government everywhere has and has always had state secrets e.g. names of spies.

>make being involved with witness harm at any layer of indirection a capital offense.

People still commit capital offenses. This just makes it much easier to get to that witness and get away. We also know from empirical evidence that the death penalty is not useful for deterring crime.

Witness protection is also getting to start over without everyone in your neighborhood knowing you were a criminal. It's part of the deal.