WW Death penalty (was: Re: TBAY: Stoned Harry & Who Will Definitely Survive?]

[Bernadette M. Crumb]

No: HPFGUIDX 38645

Eloise wrote:

>Of course, a true parallel to Christ's crucifixion would require
that Harry
>dies at the hands of the judiciary, or the establishment in some
form or
>another .
>We already have accusations from the MoM that Harry is
dangerous, that his
>scar (depending on reading) is a warning. (FIE!)
>In another thread, I was ruminating on the fact that we haven't
actually seen
>a death penalty as such in the WW. Could it exist? Could it,
just possibly,
>be manifsted in the form of beheading?

Well, we do have canonical evidence that beheading is a capital
punishment in the WW.  McNair coming to execute Buckbeak.... he
had a bloody big axe, and, unfortuately, an apparently
bloodthirsty, sadistic attitude toward doing the job.

Yes, I know that Buckbeak was a Hippogriff and not a wizard or
witch, but still... could this be a foreshadowing?

As far as the Death penalty for human beings, considering the
type of justice we've seen in the WW, it surprises me more that
there ISN'T one than if there were.  And the Dementor's Kiss is
just as much a Death penalty as beheading, hanging, garrotting,
etc.  The personality/soul is gone from the body, just like
ordinary death except that the body's involuntary processes keep
going--at least until it starves to death or something like that
(since without a mind to recognize the hunger and to know what to
do about it and what safely assuages hunger, the Kissed body
would be unable to care for itself--which leads to another
thought... who DOES take care of the soulless bodies?  It would
be worse than caring for the inmates of an 18th century insane
asylum! Ewww!).

Bernadette

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. It has no
survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value
to survival."
-- C.S. Lewis (1898-1963).