Do you believe in free will?

[brewer]

Maybe, but I don't really care. Discussing free will typically ends up being a circular, go nowhere, non-practical discussion.

Let me ask you, in the end does it really matter?

I think so. I think punishing people because they deserve it would go away in a society that doesn't hold to free will. Instead, we'd only punish people when it benefited everybody else as a whole.

On a pragmatic/practical level I don't see all that much difference between sentence one and two except for justifying motive. You might need to explain it some more.

And 'everybody else as a whole' I might have some issues with until more accurately defined.