T i m wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Then the law is ****ed up. If 1 person dies, that's the
main thing that's happened. How he died is irrelevant.

Nope, its obviously desirable to minimise the use of
torture and the more obscene ways of killing people
by harsher sentences for those that kill that way.

Q: What do they use as the *ultimate* level of *punishment* to humans?

A: Death.

We aren't talking of what might inflict the ultimate level of
pain or suffering but be the ultimate deterrent / punishment
within most civilised legal systems (even if it isn't).

You are mangling two different issues. We were discussing
whether there is a difference in the sentence with the worst
forms of murder. That's a different issue to a death sentence
which isnt even allowed anymore in most of the first world.