Charlie Stross’s thoughts on the compassionate release of Al Megrahi mirror my own when it comes to American attitudes towards the Justice System:

What bugs me is the complete lack of comprehension of the quality of mercy that seems to have crept over the US political class this century.

Even if Al Megrahi is a mass-murderer, the fact remains that he is dying. It is long-standing policy in Scotland to exercise the prerogative of mercy when possible; in general, if an imprisoned criminal is terminally ill, a request for release (for hospice care, basically) is usually granted unless they are believed to be a danger to the public.

That’s because the justice system isn’t solely about punishment. It’s about respect for the greater good of society, which is better served by rehabilitation and reconcilliation than by revenge. We do not make ourselves better people by exercising a gruesome revenge on the bodies of our vanquished foes. Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Minister, did exactly the right thing in sending Al Megrahi home to die.

Meanwhile, the angry spectators who’re throwing scat come from a country where prison rape is endemic and tolerated to the point where it’s a subject for cheap jokes.

American attitudes to crime and punishment are unspeakable; disturbing, mediaeval, and barbaric are some of the adjectives that spring to mind. But above all, the word that most thoroughly applies is merciless. The commission of a crime is taken as an excuse to unleash the demons of the subconscious, however dark, however disproportionate, upon the perpetrator. Once labeled a criminal, an individual’s right to fair treatment is utterly expunged, and any violation or degradation, however grotesque, is seen as something that they brought on themselves.

The thing that has bothered me the most about the discussions is that even people whose discourses on ethics I generally admire, like Will and Freddie seem to not even take the quality of mercy into consideration–they are focused entirely on what Magheri “deserved.” But that’s not the point of mercy, is it? As Shakespeare points out though Portia in “The Merchant of Venice”:

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.”

Mercy isn’t morally obligatory. But it is morally praiseworthy. Many are shocked that Magheri gets to spend his last days with his family when his victims did not. But that’s the whole point. By treating Magheri better than he deserves; by showing compassion for him; we’re showing the superiority of our system and our values. Would a Westerner who’d downed a Libyan aircraft be shown any mercy by the Libyans? I doubt it.

I’m not sure I want to live in a world where mercy and compassion–even towards one’s enemies–is something that’s so vehemently decried.

(link via Jim Henley)