[Lotrelf]

I'd guess he DESERVED death. But as you said that he was the servant of the Enemy and servant of the Enemy deserves death. You're right. But he repented his own doing. This show he still had a part of him "alive." a part that wanted to come back from the swamp of evil. He deserved death, not because he was evil, but because he could no longer go on on his own(i.e. without the Ring), and his fate and life and death were tied to it. His life and death were tragedy.