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> death penalty is permanent, while life imprisonment isn't

I think the word you're looking for here is "irreversible", not "permanent." Life imprisonment is, by definition, permanent.

And yes, you can "reverse" life in prison by setting the prisoner free. But what you can't so easily reverse is the psychological damage done by the false imprisonment.

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You can certainly mitigate and compensate in cases of false prosecution. This doesn't usually happen, but it could.

And it's still less irreversible - to them, and to family and friends - than killing them.

You can give monetary compensation (like that's gonna fix it all, but that's another debate) to a living person.

Yes, of course. You can also give monetary compensation to a dead person's family. Whether either option actually makes things right is debatable.

It doesn't make things right. Nothing ever will, but it's better than the alternative.

Depends on which alternative you're talking about. One alternative is not to execute people or lock them up in inhumane conditions at all (the Norwegians do this). It's not at all clear to me that writing checks when you get it wrong is better.

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