'Respite of the malevolent' eh? That's cute. So showing some modicum of understanding is bad but 'punish everyone' is good? In that case I'll consider it an honor to be called malevolent by the likes of that sort of good.
Can you think of a single offense that's ever been penalized out of existence?
Punish everyone is not anything I said. Neither did I call you malevolent. I am quite confident that all the crimes that would have been committed by those executed for the crimes they already had committed were penalized out of existence, and the innumerable innocents that would have suffered were saved by the ropes around the criminals' necks.
But that has nothing to do with Hanlon's Razor. My point was to consider evil deeds done malevolently, to prosecute evil doers as evil doers, and if during the prosecution it is proven the criminal was non compus mentus, then they can be properly availed the guardianship they need, and that would have prevented their stupidity from harming innocent(s).
All that said, I firmly believe it is better that ten guilty men go free than one innocent man be deprived of his liberty. A just nation has just courts that will not convict the innocent, unlike the USA which the best DNA research shows to wrongly convict ~25% of those convicted. Imprisoning the innocent will never prevent a crime, but is a crime itself.
Be well.