Excellently put. But polymathwannabe gives us the interesting question of whether the punishment for murder should be tied to the instrumental utility of the victim, rather than their terminal value as a human being.

I would say no, for at least two reasons.

The first is that quantifying the instrumentality of a particular person with confidence is functionally very challenging and existentially problematic. If a thorough review of these researchers' work established that they were pursuing unhelpful avenues of investigation, and that the new wave of scientists will therefore advance the timetable of AIDS treatment by years, shall we remove years from the murderers' sentence? Who is qualified to make such a determination?

The second is that it leads very quickly to the appearance of class favoritism in the criminal justice system. Broadly speaking, members of the wealthy and middle classes have higher instrumentality than the poor, so this system would produce lighter punishments for the murder of poor and disenfranchised groups. That, in turn, would lower confidence in the justice system as a whole and erode the state's monopoly on violence.

All this said, my emotional response to this event is not nearly so measured. I can't justify it and won't use it, but there's a whole lot of "Hulk smash" going on inside my head.