He stroked his beard and looked at the goldfish in the pond below him. They seemed to have such an easy life, just swimming around and eating. What decisions did goldfish have to make?
How simply they filled their days, so much unlike him. All day he had looked up similar cases in his library, reconsidered the facts and read the reports, but there did not seem to be a solution to the problem.
The captain had his own methods. He wanted to break the suspect's legs to make him confess, but the judge thought that torture was just an easy way out and the risk of having an innocent confess something he did not do lay heavily on his conscience.
Yet what if the man was guilty? What if he had committed the crime and he would set him free? would that not be just as great an injustice? And a danger too, for he could repeat the same deed.
He looked at his right hand and pondered. It wasn't a warrior's hand, and except for a blunt sword he had never held a weapon, yet he knew that indirectly it wielded the executioner's axe. With one stroke of his brush he could seal the man's fate.
Some people thought that power was a lovely thing and they were frustrated by their own lack of it. Yet the judge knew that such people had never held it. They did not know of the sleepless nights caused by the responsibility to judge over life and death... They were goldfish.
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Written by Asferthecat (834 comments posted) 12th February 2008 |
You too seem to be becoming philosophical. This would be more of a story if it was related to an actual case. We could sympathise more with the judge's dilemma.
I liked the goldfish.
This sounded odd " How simply they filled their days, so much unlike him." but I don't know how to resolve it - apart from leaving out 'so much'.
I would have prefered didn't to did not, it reads easier.
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Written by fellpony (1603 comments posted) 13th February 2008 |
| Your judge missed considering the obvious ethical point: that releasing a guilty man (one guilty man unpunished) is less of an error than condemning an innocent one (one innocent man punished wrongly and one guilty one unpunished). The basis of English law's presumption of innocence. |
Written by Fledermaus (3246 comments posted) 13th February 2008 |
Thanks Sue.
Hm, there's some logic in that. Never looked at it that way, as I always considered the two equally bad, but the calculation is both simple and correct.
This 'story' is of course set in some ancient time when people had perhaps not yet considered that. Or had they? For it seems to me exactly like the sort of remark the ancient Greek philosophers would come up with. |
HI Fledermaus
Written by jean.day (2266 comments posted) 13th February 2008 |
I enjoyed this, even more on the second reading. I wonder how many judges have sleepless nights over their decisions.
I've just come back from the States where Mr. Bush's fans seem to think that water-boarding is a perfectly good way of getting at the truth, when dealing with terrorists. |
Written by William87 (30 comments posted) 14th February 2008 |
A nice read =)
At first read through I was just a wee bit confused. But then when I got to the last sentence "They were goldfish" which of course doesn't have to mean that they're actually goldfish, the story came together -- what confused me was just the first half -- I didn't get what he was looking up in the library.
/William |
Written by tat_2man (56 comments posted) 14th February 2008 |
I do like this piece because I had never considered how the judges themselves feel. I am the type that would be more the captain than the judge.  |
Written by Phil (6683 comments posted) 14th February 2008 |
Liked this little scene. Reflective and well structured.
Phil |
Written by Fledermaus (3246 comments posted) 14th February 2008 |
Thanks Jean, William, Tat2man and Phil.
I often think judges in our modern European societies have too little power, yet what if they had more power, would they be able to handle the responsibility?
I just started reading the "Judge Dee" novels (by Van Gulik) again. They're detective stories about a judge in Tang dynasty China and many of those end with the execution of the culprit. Now judge Dee does his research better than a modern CSI team, but I wonder what would happen with sloppier judges. seems like a very responsible job to me. |
Written by woody44 (774 comments posted) 15th February 2008 |
I often look at my goldfish when in a reflective mood and wish I were perhaps one of them. Fortunately for the public at large I am not a Judge but I`m sure they do have a lot of these `conscience` moments. Nice read.
Roger
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Written by Fledermaus (3246 comments posted) 15th February 2008 |
Thanks Roger.
It's strange how people seem to long for power, but often forget that with power comes responsibility. That's probably why the people ruling nations usually aren't exactly the wisest... |
Which is worse?
Written by ianhobsonuk (160 comments posted) 19th February 2008 |
| Poses an interesting question – which is worse? To set a, perhaps, guilty man free and risk a repeat of the crime by that man, or to find a, perhaps, innocent man guilty and risk ending investigations that might bring to justice the genuinely guilty party before he commits a repeat of the crime – I’d say the latter. |
Written by Fledermaus (3246 comments posted) 19th February 2008 |
Thanks Ianhobson.
Well, Sue's calculation seems to be correct. It's something I had not considered before, but it seems like good logic. |
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