Crime and Punishment

You murder a random guy in the street.
You are charged with a 2nd degree murder.

Then your diary is found where you had written a murder plan.
Now you are charged with 1st degree murder.

Accidents and murders are treated differently.
And, one is accountable for one's thoughts/ intentions.

Ouch.

Suppose you, a Hindu, finds out that the victim, a Muslim, is sleeping with your wife.
You are now motivated to plan and execute the above murder.

Let's change the context.
You, a Hindu extremist, plan and murder a Muslim guy out of hatred.

Now do the contexts matter, should the punishments be different as well?
How to apply this new found wisdom?

Low probability of capture will encourage crime, so the state should be efficient.
Low penalty will also encourage crime, so the state should not go easy on crimes.

Ouch.

Also your personal value for committing a crime can be unusually high.
And consider the state, its efficiency is constant/ equal for all citizens.

But you may plan a murder more efficiently, to bring down "probability of capture".
So the state should punish increasingly for a crime conducted by superior methods.

Ouch.