Even the application of mercy, in sentencing or parole, James Whitman argues, can be suspect because it requires judges or parole boards to consider the individual circumstances of each person brought before them, to consider the specific conditions of their crime and detention. And who’s to say that showing mercy to one won’t mean injustice for another? The only true justice can happen in the absence of mercy, where each individual meets the same punishment and the same fate, with no deviation. If “no mercy” sounds perverse, keep in mind that injustice in sentencing provided at least part of
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