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Originally Posted by The Might
Your last post is, sorry that I have to say this, pretty much off-topic Lalwende.
As far as I can tell, we are not discussing whether the Ring influenced or didn't influence Gollum, but whether he deserved or didn't deserve death for his actions.
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Oh dear. Seeing as the influence of the Ring is pretty central to understanding anything about Gollum then discussing the influence of the Ring is central too or we will just be writing out of context nonsense. Wjhether the Ring did or did not influence Gollum is irrelevant because it did. No need to find quotes for that one, just go and look at most of Lord of the Rings and quite a lot of The Hobbit.
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Originally Posted by Mac
Healing can mean two things. First, of course, the healing of the wounds that a crime has caused to the victims of it. Second, the wounds inside the criminal, which are very apparent and visible in Gollum. Of course it would be just to punish him (disregarding the disagreement about Gollum's mental status at this point), but what would come out of it? Would Gollum repent due to it? I can hardly imagine that, given that the Elves of Mirkwood were as kind as possible to him and Gollum still hated them more than anything. In Gollum's case, justice would indeed perpetuate his evil and perhaps further it. So, unless the punishment would have been capital (of course), it would not have changed anything in the long run, except to satisfy our, may I say 'vain'?, sense of justice.
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I doubt he could have been healed, but then it was
possible as he didn't hang around in custody for long enough for anyone to find out, and both Gandalf and the Elves seem to have had hope that he could be healed. Incidentally, can you imagine Gollum taking Frodo's 'cure' and going to the Undying Lands? Meh. But seriously, maybe the memory of what happened/didn't happen to Gollum is what prompted the Elves to take the other three Hobbit ringbearers overseas.
Had Gollum been put to death, we have to ask what purpose it would serve? It would have stopped him committing any more crimes, but then so would effective imprisonment and/or an attempt at healing. Deterrent was irrelevant as there aren't many magic rings around to be stolen and taken into deep mountain caves for 500 years, are there?
Execution would really have served no more purpose than to satisfy the anger or repulsion of those who sought to execute him.