[HPforGrownups] Re: Percy

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 166072

From: eggplant107 <eggplant107 at hotmail.com>
>And then there is the fact that Harry was judged by the FULL
>Wizardmon, something that has not happened in many years, something I
>do no believe a overdue library book would merit, something Author
>Weasley was flabbergasted to discover. And in all that time there was
>Percy, smugly taking notes. Yes, evil is a strong word, but I believe
>Percy is evil. We will learn if I am right or wrong on July 21.

Bart:
Evil, or so enamoured by the rules that he cannot tell the difference, so he sees following the rules to the letter to be good, and any violation to be evil. Of course, few evil people think of themselves as that way. 

In the Green Lantern comics of the 90's, the creators did an interesting turn on that. Green Lanterns (a sort of interstellar ranger) had two major qualifications: That they are "born without fear" and that they are honest. Part of reasoning behind these requirements was that it was thought that they would be incorruptible, because they chose the path of honesty without fear as a motivation. So, when it was decided to create an origin for the one renegade Green Lantern, it was decided that his reason for turning evil was an overdevotion to duty; stopping evil in his sector by becoming the absolute dictator. 

>Yes you would think so, that would be the logical thing, but consider,
>in the American system of "justice" jurors are expected to pretend
>they don't know what the ultimate penalty for murder is. It's only
>after he is found guilty of murder are you supposed to start thinking
>about whether he should live or die. It's all nonsense of course,
>almost as stupid as Wizard law.

Bart:
First of all, it's not "the American system of justice". Some states have it, some states don't. And it did make sense at one point. The idea was that juries decided matters of fact, not matters of law. The jury decided if the accused was proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or not. Since the penalty phase had not yet occurred, the jury could not decide whether the accused was guilty based on the penalty. However, in recent years, there has been a lot less leeway with penalties, which means that, in at least one well-publicized case, jurors might be trying to slap the defendant on the wrist, and end up sending him to jail for a deacde or more.

Still, the idea of Azkaban is really terrible; that people could be sent there on suspicion, with no trial (Hagrid, COS), when it could easily be a death sentence.

Bart