Eli Lehrer at the National Review's Corner:
Deterring future terrorists along the same lines as bin Laden’s, of course, provides a pretty good reason to imprison him. But a longer sentence seems unlikely to change the deterrence factor very much. No nomadic terrorists wants to spend any time in prison and the certainty of any sentence for terrorist acts provides sufficient deterrence. Nearly all terrorists operate on the basis that they are too smart to get caught. Finally, one can turn to punishment. And bin Laden deserves that. But even a 12-year sentence is a pretty severe punishment. His life expectancy is 13 years and the rigors of prison life — particularly for a man with kidney and other medical issues — hardly seem likely to extend that.
Oh wait, he's not talking about Bin Laden, he's talking about Bernie Madoff, and what a raw deal he got by the court.
What's funny is that Jonah Goldberg ends up disagreeing, saying 500 years would be fine with him, and his readers jump down his throat.