Why don't we treat Spammers like the criminals that they are?

Someone please explain to me why this guy can cost businesses and individuals thousands, if not millions of dollars in hardware, software and lost time/productivity and only get fined. If he had walked into a home or business and pulled cash out of a drawer, he would be doing hard time. Why does white collar crime (of a much larger magnitude) not condone public hanging? Maybe it's not appropriate here, as I do not know all the details of the case, but I would like to see spammers, virus writers and hackers dragged out into the street and shot. I think this would solve a lot of the IT issues that they cause very quickly.