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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 30, 2024

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Historically attempted murder has often drawn a lower penalty than completed murder, with there being an underlying assumption that failure to complete the act indicates some lack of mens rea to do so, or that cosmically it is wrong to execute a man without another body on the other side of the scale.

Historically both attempted murder and murder were punished by hanging. More recently as criminal justice evolved into a more formalized system attempt murder was considered less serious by, usually, 1 tick. So murder would be a class 1 (or A or whatever based on the state) then attempt murder was class 2, which realistically meant 30 years instead of 40 or something along those lines.