it depends on what one wants to achieve. a punishment that truly drives them insane. the pardon does not free them from civil suits.
they are stripped of their wealth and power and sent out into the streets to be ridiculed. for those people, this is a fate worse than death. power and prestige are the things they always wanted. give them a job at mcdonalds where they have to se the public. every. fukking. day.
let the trash take itself out then. after the feeding frenzy where they watch everything being stripped away. a death of a thousand cuts as the media laughs at them until they can't take anymore.
if it was a sentence it would be "cruel and unusual". if life does it to them instead…
how to punish the rich and powerful:
pardon them for their crimes.
without access to the fifth amendment or other protections, they can now be made to testify and publicly admit to their crimes.
public ridicule begins here. they become toxic and their friends abandon them. there is no shelter.
allow their victims to sue them in civil court so that their possessions are given to those who have been wronged–the evidence is now in their own testimony.
they are now forced to try to make a living somewhere/somehow. trying to hide from the fame that was everything to them.
either they "suicide weekend" or they continue in misery.
it has a beautiful cruelty to it that is impossible in the regular justice system. executions are fast, and they don't deserve that.
pardon them all.
this has all given us a viewpoint of what actual evil is and how it works. we must use this viewpoint to properly punish the type of people we are dealing with so that examples are made and lessons will be learned.