ABSTRACT
This chapter examines whether, in exercising their discretion, criminal justice officials should do justice, grant mercy and treat alleged or convicted offenders equally. Although it endorses doing justice, the chapter maintains that officials should almost never reduce a just punishment simply to be merciful. Public officials are fiduciaries, and they ordinarily have no authority to make unmerited gifts. Sometimes, however, deciding not to inflict a just penalty can reflect the willingness of an entire society to forgive. That may be the case when truth and reconciliation commissions approve amnesties. The chapter focuses on the teachings of Jesus Christ and questions some of them. It asks, for example, whether a modern president would merit praise or condemnation if he followed Jesus’ example in the case of the woman taken in adultery. The chapter also suggests that – unlike other officials – chief executives exercising their pardon power need not act affirmatively to treat like cases alike. It would have been out of character for Jesus Christ to refuse a plea for mercy. Nevertheless, few Christians have endorsed an implication of his boundless willingness to forgive – the abolition of criminal punishment.
