What is more important: mercy or justice?

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Pico and ME

Mercy will probably end giving more peace of mind than justice would...at least in the long run. But justice might end up preventing more wrong doing than mercy in the long run, too.

The effect of injustice is immediate and certain, while that of misplaced mercy is only potential.

In hindsight, you could determine that it would have been better to imprison or execute a particular person than to let them commit crimes they later committed, but if you think that imprisoning a potentially innocent person can be justified by the potential crimes they could commit if they were free, that same logic could be used to imprison anyone, if you could envision them committing a serious enough crime.