Moral justification for the execution of criminals of war?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Death is annihilation, and so, an execution, once completed, is no longer punishment.  If you want to punish murderers, leave them in prison.

I get your point. But in the Nuremberg trials, the Nazis who commited the worse crimes were the ones executed. Rest were imprisoned. Ending someone's life is considered a greater punishment than imprisonment, at least socially.

But societies don’t execute people to punish them, regardless of what people tell themselves. Societies execute criminals so the masses can feel better about themselves. According to your profile, you’re 27 years old. It’s perfectly possible that you could live another 50-60 years. Assuming, for the sake of argument, you were convicted of some horrific crime. Which would you consider to be the greater punishment: a quick, clean and relatively painless death, or five decades locked in a cage with assorted killers, rapists, and child molesters, every minute of your day regimented - told what to eat, when to eat, when to sleep, when to relieve yourself, and told this by gangs of sadistic guards who could - at any moment - brutalize you without a qualm or repercussions?

THAT is punishment.

Boru