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The Christian god is one of justice and mercy. Until the 12th century, these were inextricably related, co-equal virtues, expressed on earth in the confession and forgiveness of sin. Beginning in the 13th century and with the subsequent development of canon law, the church was transformed from a charismatic community into a legal and political institution. Penance became a legal requirement enjoined on every Christian. The treatment of penance was increasingly juridified and mercy increasingly opposed to justice. By the 14th century, much of the theological principle of mercy had either been absorbed into the legal principle of canonical equity or opposed to justice altogether.

This book focuses on the degree to which certain moral and legal doctrines are rooted in specific passions that are then institutionalised in the form of criminal law. A philosophical analysis is developed of the following questions: when, if ever, should hatred be overcome by sympathy or compassion? What are forgiveness and mercy and to what degree do they require - both conceptually and morally - the overcoming of certain passions and the motivation by other passions? If forgiveness and mercy indeed are moral virtues, what role, if any, should they play in the law?

War presents the most degraded moral environment humanity creates. It is an arena where individuality is subsumed in collective violence and humanity is obscured as a faceless, merciless enemy pitted against its reflection in an elemental struggle for survival. A barbaric logic has guided the conduct of war throughout history. Yet as Cathal Nolan reveals in this book, even as war can obliterate hope and decency at the grand level it simultaneously produces conditions that permit astonishing exceptions of mercy and shared dignity. Pulling the trigger is usually both the expedient thing and required by war's grim and remorseless calculus. Yet somehow the trigger is not always pulled. Humanity is rediscovered and honoured in a flash of recognition. This book gathers and explores acts of singular mercy, giving them form and substance - across wars, causes, and opposing uniforms.

Cover Page -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Meeting a Need -- 2. Community Action and Leadership -- 3. Settling In -- 4. Challenges and Historic Rescues -- 5. Establishing Southern Oregon as a Regional Medical Center -- 6. Response to Tragedy -- 7. Expanding Services -- 8. Moving into the Future -- Bibliography.

Far from being a utopian, soft and ineffectual concept, Meyer shows that mercy already operates within the law in ways that we usually do not recognize. . . Meyer's piercing insights and careful analysis bring the reader to think of law, justice, and mercy itself in a new and far more profound light. --James Martel, San Francisco State University How can granting mercy be just if it gives a criminal less punishment than he "deserves" and treats his case differently from others like it? This ancient question has become central to debates over truth and reconciliation commissions, alternative dispute resolution, and other new forms of restorative justice. The traditional response has been to marginalize mercy and to cast doubt on its ability to coexist with forms of legal justice. Flipping the relationship between justice and mercy, Linda Meyer argues that our rule-bound and harsh system of punishment is deeply flawed and that mercy should be, not the crazy woman in the attic of the law, but the lady of the house. The book articulates a theory of punishment with mercy and illustrates the implications of that theory with legal examples drawn from criminal law doctrine, pardons, mercy in military justice, and fictional narratives of punishment and mercy. Linda Ross Meyer, Ph. D., J.D., is Carmen Tortora Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University School of Law and President of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and Humanities

In 1961, nineteen-year-old African-American Wilbert Rideau was sentenced to death for the murder of Julia Ferguson, a white bank teller in Lake Charles, Louisiana, In a succession of trials, three all-white juries sentenced him to death. The sentence was commuted to life in 1972, after the US Supreme Court temporarily halted executions. In December 2000, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Rideau had 'established a prima facie case of racial discrimination in the process used to select the grand jury that indicted him'. It ordered his conviction be 'reversed' and the 1961 indictment 'quashed'. He remains in prison.