Gayle's Bard Blog--The Quality of Mercy

Don't miss Gayle's sublime post on the quality of mercy in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.  A magnificent meditation for all lawyers and those becoming lawyers.  This is Shakespeare's soliloquy on mercy in the mouth of the "lawyer" Portia:

The quality of mercy is not strained.
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 of God himself.
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there

My lawyer friend Mark says there is a Russian proverb that translated means--we all claim to want justice but what we really want and what we really need is mercy.

The Death Penalty--the First Murder

The first murder was Cain's murder of his brother Abel according to the Old Testament.

Now Cain was a bad dude, in fact he was bad to the bone.  As you recall, Cain and his brothers were farmers, Abel was the livestock guy, and Cain the tiller of land.  The murder comes about when Cain gets attitudinous when God shows some real appreciation for the offering made by Abel, and less than genuine pleasure at a half-assed offering by Cain.  In fact God warns Cain, "sin is crouching at your door."  This caution doesn't even cause Cain a momentary pause.  In a premeditated act Cain suggests to Abel that the two of them take a walk out into the field where Cain promptly spills his brother's blood.  In the OT account, God crossexamines Cain, "where's your brother?"  What does this wise guy say to the Creator?  Uh, like dude "am I my brother's keeper?" 

Holy mackeral, what a wise ass!  Let's just say that the fact that Cain was not instantly a small smolddering pile of carbon, should tell us all something about mercy.  In fact the first murderer is not only not killed, he is given a mark to protect him against being killed.  This murderer moves east of eden and builds a city in the land of Nod.

As much as I do believe in God, I am not a biblical literalist.  But when I read as I did today about the killing of the death row inmate in Ohio the same guy who had tried to kill himself last week, only to be nursed back to health so that Ohio could kill him Tuesday morning, I can't help but wonder did any of these so-called christians read Genesis?  In fact the Governor of Ohio is a former Baptist minister, didn't he read Genesis, how does he rationalize the state sponsored killing?

Look noone is going to miss Lawrence Reynolds (pic) was 43 years old.  He was a complete loser; he killed his 67 year old neighbor while fully addled on drugs.  He stole $40.  Still, Reynolds, was considering the state of his impairment at the time he committed his pathetic crime, less culpable than Cain.  Nonetheless, Ohio showed no mercy.

Let's see we Pardon the Turkey, we kill the Retard

Texas is planning to kill a mentally-defective (IQ "hovers" around 70) death row inmate for the holiday season.




This pathetic Texas inmate's attorney blew all of his appellate options and rights; so Bobby Wayne Wood's only prayer is clemency from Gov. Rick Perry.  Good luck, there.  For more:  http://www.texasobserver.org/enterprise/retarded-prisoner-faces-execution