Mercy

Mercy and Justice

Mercy has been expressed as a virtue in the world's great religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They generally exhort similar conceptions of mercy, mostly of God's mercy, and express them in myriad parables of human beings carrying out this mercy.

In addition to its religious roots, mercy also emerges from notions of philosophical natural law, whereby individuals have immutable or inalienable rights precisely because they are human beings. Such rights transcend jurisdictional boundaries. Morality in natural law is a metaphysical idea, referring to that which exists above or beyond physical reality, superseding all other types of laws.

Do human beings have an inherent, inalienable right to be treated mercifully? The question arises when comparing criminal justice systems around the world, and noting, for instance, that some nations give more weight to human rights than others.

Natural law and religious approaches express an absolutist, metaphysical notion of mercy, in contrast to the relativist notion that appropriate degrees of mercy are whatever powerful individuals or groups say they are. In utilitarianism, for example, a decision to be merciful is made based on the perceived consequences of that decision.

Absolutist, metaphysical approaches include the “just deserts “or retributivist theory, which decrees that mercy should be granted only when it is specifically and morally deserved given the factual circumstances of the particular case and regardless of outcome if it is denied.

In modern criminal justice, both utilitarian and retributive concerns may underlie various merciful decisions. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The judge or decision maker can consider the consequences of a punishment or sentencing decision together along with the offender's moral deserts.

Offenders can encourage the criminal justice authority's desire to be merciful by exhibiting remorse. They may also prompt a judge's feelings of mercy by accepting full personal responsibility for the harm that resulted from the transgression. The offender may offer to pay restitution or decline to mount a defense. Mercy may also be granted to those who are technically guilty but show that they were motivated by moral or virtuous sentiments, for example, in cases involving the medicinal use of marijuana or illegal euthanasia.

One more obvious way in which offenders may request mercy is to show that they were merciful toward the crime victim. On the grounds that “one good turn deserves another,” the state should show the mercy to the offenders that they previously showed the victim.

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