Doug Jacobs wrote:
> In rec.arts.anime.misc Frank J. Lhota <FrankLho.NOSPAM@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Rector's story show why even a Death Penalty proponent would have
>> problems with Light's approach to executions. It seems that the only
>> justification Light needs to make a death note entry is a television
>> report of a serious crime: no additional details about the case are
>> examined, much less taken into consideration. Is there any doubt that
if
>> Light lived in Arkansas in the early nineties, he would have entered
the
>> name of the childlike Rector into his book?
>
> This reminds me more of an episode from the TV sci-fi series, Babylon5.
In
> the episode, you learn that the death penalty has been done away with,
and
> instead Earth now uses a procedure that wipes the personality and
memories
> from the brain. A new personality is then implanted - one that wants to
> serve society. The ex-convict is then released and given a menial labor
> job - which he happily does - until he dies of natural causes. This
> "death of personality" sounds exactly like what happened to Rector. As
> you point out, the REAL Rector - the one who committed those crimes -
was
> killed by the botched suicide attempt.
>
> The crux of the problem here is what is a person? Is it just the
> personality rattling around in the brain, or is it the sum of body and
> personality? If the latter, then one would argue that even though
Rector
> had a new personality, his body was still guilty of the crimes it was
used
> to committ.
That's an interesting point of view. But punishing someone for crimes
they cannot recall seems sort of pointless
> Of course, I have to sort of wonder why would the police work to revive
> someone from a suicide attempt, only to put him on trial for a crime
that
> would result in the death penalty? If anything, Rector's suicide was a
> final stab at the community he'd hurt since he denied society the
closure
> of a trial (even if it would mean that society would then kill him
> itself.)
I understand why the police came to Rector's aid, and I commend them for
doing so. To not help him when he was fatally wounded would effectively
give him a death sentence without the benefit of a trial. The police
have devoted their lives to enforcing the law, and so they followed the
law in this case. The law required that they revive the man so that he
could stand for a fair trial.
Granted, it must have been difficult for the officers to a man such as
rector. They had to revive a the man who has so little respect for the
law or for life that he would kill one of their own. You have to admire
the strength of their convictions, and their commitment for carrying out
their duties in this matter.
And I couldn't agree more with your assessment of Rector's suicide
attempt. It was both cowardly and cruel.
>> Oddly enough, Light and Misa came very close to meeting Ricky's fate.
>> Consider the time period where neither of them had memories of their
>> death notes. During this time, Light was fully supportive of his fellow
>> investigators, and truly believed in bringing Kira to justice. Would it
>> have been right to execute Light during this time period, when he did
>> not know of his life as Kira and actively opposed Kira's killings?
>> Definitely not, but that would have been the likely outcome if L had
>> cracked the case at that time.
>
> Light and Misa aren't quite the same, however.
>
> They simply lost their memories of the deathnote - but were otherwise
the
> same people. To make a comparison to Rector, it'd be as if he'd
forgotten
> about shooting those people and cops. However, "he" was still the same
> person.
>
> Had L found ample evidence against Light and Misa, they would have still
> been convicted of the crimes even though they wouldn't have any memory
of
> them. We even see (well...hear anyways) Light debating with himself
about
> the fact that he doesn't just agree with Kira, but that he might even
come
> to the same conclusions as Kira given the proper set of circumstances.
>
> The way I look at it, if Light hadn't been in such a dour mood when he
> found the deathnote, he might not have gone down the path to become Kira
-
> although I suspect that the temptation would ALWAYS be there.
>
>
True, in fact the Light of this time period appears to strongly suspect
the truth. I started off speculating what would have happened if L
cracked the case when Light did not have his memories of the death note,
but there is an even more frightening alternate. Imagine if the Light of
this time period had cracked the case!
--
"All things extant in this world,
Gods of Heaven, gods of Earth,
Let everything be as it should be;
Thus shall it be!"
- Magical chant from "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi"
"Drizzle, Drazzle, Drozzle, Drome,
Time for this one to come home!"
- Mr. Wizard from "Tooter Turtle"
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