is it prone to abuse by those who yield power - Yes!
however - the alternative - where corruption goes unchecked is even worse!! if you come from a poor country e.g in Africa - you would've experienced the effects of corruption.
American are now experiencing it now - & the country is already worse off. though before corruption in American was used as an incentive mechanism - now it's just pure grift.
so yeah sentencing one or two people to death explicitly is the humane outcome vs sentencing thousands to death implicitly.