12 October 20XX+1
My Dear Lucilius:
I know, two letters in the same day – in this case, it is late in the evening. Pompeia Paulina has gone to bed and I left here with her notes and my own thoughts. Over everything hovers the thought that tomorrow, I must judge.
I wonder, Lucilius, if this is what every judge has felt over the course of time as they face down the fact that they will have to render a verdict. A sense of doom – in the old sense of the world, a heavy pressing fate – lies over me this evening. It seems to even bend the light from the lamp and fire, colouring everything with a weight beyond what is normally present.
It is clear – or at least clear to me – that the Cataline acted in what he perceived as self defense, I believe for that of his wife. It makes a certain kind of horrible sense: an older man, taking advantage of a need, now realizing he needs to take care of loose ends, knowing that in this small community with increasingly strapped resources that the killing of one or two people whom almost no-one would miss would be of little concern or note. And certainly at the end, his wife had done nothing to deny that she thought her husband had taken advantage of the situation.
And yet...And yet, Cataline clearly confessed to the killing. He made no denial of the fact. And a death is a death.
Was it justifiable? What is necessary? No-one seems to have seen the deed itself, only the results of it.
In other times, likely we would have had witnesses all about and video records on smart phones recording the whole thing. We have none of that now, just the attestations of man’s characters versus the attestations of man’s actions.
And a ring. And a dead body. And a story which, if true, is both vile and likely being played out in a dozen different ways in a hundred different places. Always, the powerful prey on the weak, and there is always someone to take advantage of a situation.
Why, Lucilius, do times like these always seem to bring out the basest in us?
Your Obedient Servant, Seneca
The harm is done. Now justice for the community is to restore whatever civil is left in a world of less and less options.
ReplyDeleteA period of community service in a task needful (what's really happening with the groups garbage, a disease situation growing daily) or better yet securing food supplies could be restorative in the stead of punitive.
Jail isn't going to work. Who's going to pay a guard and feed the guard and prisoner?
At least that's how I'd hope this played out in my area.
The harm is indeed done Michael - on both sides. As to restitution, there seem to be a limited number of options given the current situation.
DeleteMichael has a good point, long term lockup not possible yet what if community service is refused by the culprit? What then? Glad I'm not Seneca TB.
ReplyDeleteUnder viking law people in the village have protection from murder, even revenge.
DeleteIf outlawed you have no such protection.
Community is important for the survival of the whole.
Michael the anonymous
Nylon12, there is likely no more mechanism for enforcing community service than there is for jail. On the one hand, someone still has to enforce it. On the other, it can become a subjective matter: if someone did the minimum for a set period of time, did they perform the service.
DeleteBeyond the practice of outlawing that Michael notes above, there was also the established practice of wergild, or payment for an injury or death. It was different than restitution, or making it right via goods. It was payment based on the agreed upon value of someone's life.
Justifiable Homicide
ReplyDeleteThat was the defense that created the Hatfield and McCoy feud.
DeleteNot good for a near starving community that NEEDS all the cooperation and good will of the folks.
Michael the anonymous
Bill, in theory you are correct from the facts that are known. Translating that into practice is likely the issue.
DeleteDefense is justifiable homicide. The culprit didn't defend himself in court because he's destroyed emotionally, wracked with guilt. His world has shattered. His being wracked with guilt, won't be mitigated by being innocent on grounds of defence. He's lost his wife, his life, his world. Nobody can do anything to him compared to what he's putting himself through. If this isn't handled well, he's a high probability suicide. I've had two friends check out early. Overwhelming despair was the driving factor. Michael, above, has good points.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes on your deliberations, Seneca.
T_M, you make an excellent point. Cataline is a man broken, and likely there is little in the way of punishment that would make anything worse than it already is. And his suicide - were it to come to pass - would not serve the justice of the community either as it would be more than apparent what had driven him to that point.
DeleteBest wishes indeed. I am grateful I do not have to sort through this issue.
I'm guessing no one envies Seneca right now.
ReplyDeleteLeigh - I suspect not. Justice often seems clear cut until you are the one having to decide.
DeleteWill not flood the blog here but worth the read.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.resilience.org/stories/2008-02-26/five-stages-collapse/
Our story is in stage 4 and the results of this court case *might* be seen next year by the survivors as reason for stage 5.
Entropy happens unless leadership keeps the civil in civilization.
Thanks for sharing the article, Michael.
DeleteBased on that logic, the decision could indeed move things to a stage 5.
Under Viking Law banishment, even for murder. Was the norm. Mainly I think because to kill someone for a murder, causes a long lasting deep resentment among the living. Woody
ReplyDelete