The meaning of death sentence in the USA

Some 50-60 people get executed a year and there are around 17 thousand
murders
a year.

Politicians say death sentences help reduce the number of killed.

Never they say: look, 17 thousand were murdered, it is clearly not
working.

Two men who beat a Chinese man to death with baseball bats because of
loosing jobs in an American car factory due to Japanese competitors
were let
go home free in court because the judge saying they showed remorse for
their
crimes, while Schwarzenegger refused to refute the death sentence of a
man
whose writings in jail were Nominated for the Nobel prize because
Schwarzenegger said the man did not show remorse for his crimes.

And how many killers were let go home in court?

I know several cases.

An old man in Colorado Springs was beeped at from behind when he was
entering a one lane highway. He was beeped at because he was going
slow. He hit the breaks, and at that moment an 18 year old dude jumped
out of his car to go and talk to the old man, but at the moment he
came
up to the car he was shot.

The old man was let go home in court because he was such a good
citizen
and acted in a normal angered way of being beeped at and the court
ruled
that the kid was a bully and threatened safety.

.