This is my John Galt speaking cartoon

[kandrathe]

If I break your physical body to save your immortal soul, is that a crime? Who gets to decide and on what basis?

Well, yes. You would have no proof you could or did accomplish the task of saving my immortal soul. One might similarly profess that criminals are possessed by demons, and that only through sufficient torture would they be exorcised. Proof of the existence of the demon or that the exorcism worked would be impossible. It reminds me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with the witch. If she sinks (and drowns) she is innocent, but if she floats then she will be burned as a witch.

Another problem during dark ages (and also still in some more backwards nations) was that the accused were assumed guilty, and needed to present proof of innocence.

This is why the argument for the death penalty as justice also fails. It is murder by the State as justice for a similar crime. If the death penalty has merit, it is either in its harshness as a preventive warning, or as the extreme ultimate means to protect society against convicted monsters.