Moral justification for the execution of criminals of war?

[The Grand Nudger]

Well, what happened to social contract as normative?  If mores are a social construct, then how is one to say that a society's mores are malformed, illogical, purely subjective, or inconsistent?

-he asked, after repeatedly making each claim himself, and before reiterating the same later.

That's how you get people believing (knowing, in their view) in witches, or in the idea that America is the freest nation in the world.

Sure, people can believe all sorts of mistaken things, but neither of those claims is a normative claim....so....?

Back to the OP, the ongoing expense of a single execution might amount to millions.  Okay, there's a deep respect for the sanctity of life (and due process) there.  But then you just had many tens of thousands of black people die to Covid, with little to no health care.  It seems to me that those millions of dollars in vaccinations and medical equipment would have gone very far, indeed, in maintaining those lives.

Whatever your moral view of executions may be, and whatever your metaethical view of morality may be...they're more expensive, not less, than just imprisoning someone.  We'd save those millions you think might be useful in other places, were we to stop killing killers.