--- joanna bujes <jbujes at covad.net> wrote:
> And then there's always "Mercy is the highest form
> of justice," being
> clear that mercy cannot take place without
> understanding. None of this,
> of course, is of any use in a society -- such as
> ours -- which is based
> on crime.
>
An idle sentiment. You feel no more merciful than anyone here do towards war criminals, corrupt officials, corporate thugs who poison whole communities, white collar hoodlums who loot pension funds and rob the widow and the orphan, cops who torture suspects, and the general rifraff who constitute some of my paying clientele -- when they caught. And do you feel merciful to the murderers and gangsters whom I spend much of my time defending (zealously!) pro bono?
The rights of defendants should be scrupulously respected, and they deserve good representation -- that's my job! --, and but with that very important limitation, do you want them loose if they are guilty and the evidence is there to show it?
Faced with real bad guys who cause real harm, you think what all decent people think, these people deserve a lot of due process, and if they are convicted, they should be punished. Proportionately, of course, not insanely, the way we do it in America. It's only in the abstract that you can talk this way.
jks
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