In the book A Game of Thrones, one of the main characters Ned lives by a certain rule for death sentences: he will only order a death sentence on a person if he is willing to do the killing himself. This relates back to the mistaken guilty verdicts that have been mentioned previously in this blog. There is a great disconnect between the judge and the killing (I know that the judge does not choose the verdict, but they do decide the final sentencing). Now I don’t think that judges should kill those that they sentence, but I think it is something that should be in there mind. Not only do they believe this person deserves to be dead based on the legal system, but does he or she deserve to be dead at your hand? Because when it comes down to it, a person’s life truly is in their hands. The death sentence will be carried out by someone else, and this person may only have to push a button. The judge can reason that they did not actually kill the innocent person they sentenced, and the person who actually pushes the button can reason that they only did their job and had not placed an innocent person in that position (they’ll think ‘that was the judges mess up’). A person has to be proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt, but when it comes to a death sentence one should be certain.
SPOILER ALERT FOR ANY READERS OF THIS SERIES: at least if you haven’t finished the first book.
ReplyDeleteI have also read A Game of Thrones and I do recall how interesting I thought the character Ned’s perspective on controlling someone else’s death was. I’m pretty positive I don’t ever want to be the final decision maker when it comes to anyone’s death besides my own but if I had to be I would definitely take it more seriously and with more thought than emotion if I had to be the one to actually end someone else’s life. Especially if that meant I had to cut off their head. This philosophy makes a full circle in the book when Ned gets his own head cut off by a fourteen year old king-boy’s henchman just because the teenager in power likes watching men die, and as a result starts a crazy war throughout the kingdoms because he didn’t consider the consequences of his actions. After seeing this mentioned here it’s pretty obvious how much influence Ned’s original philosophy actually had all throughout the book and also shows how easy it is to get ahead of one’s self when the action doesn’t actually require you to do anything. Especially in death, once a decision like that is made you can’t go back on it and even if you changed your mind in a split second, if you’re not the one carrying out the command, trying to beat the chain of command can be pretty hard.