Did Gollum deserve death?

[Boromir88]

Then again, as I quoted from letter #181, he was already tainted.

I think the question we should all ask though is could we imagine Smeagol killing his friend (or anyone for that matter) before coming across the Ring? I think not.

I'm going to use Boromir as an example again...here's Pippin's impression of him:

'and Pippin gazing at him saw how closely he resembled his brother Boromir - whom Pippin had liked from the first, admiring the great man's lordly but kindly manner.'

Pippin admires Boromir for his lordliness, yet kind qualities. Boromir trying to kill Frodo for the Ring doesn't make him seem like a kind man...but in truth he was. Could we imagine Boromir trying to kill Frodo if he had never come across the ring? I think not.

Both Smeagol and Boromir were corrupted by the Ring because both were easy prey for the Ring. Gollum's pre-disposition to 'meanness' and Boromir's mindset that the Ring is a weapon both made them easy targets. But, let's not take the Ring out as an important part in the changing of these two characters...causing both to do things I don't think they would ever have done. Afterall a 'mean son of a thief' is a far away from a 'friend murderer' and 'baby eater.'

[Raynor]

Gollum's pre-disposition to 'meanness'

I would prefix pre-disposition with "strong". After all, he killed a friend perhaps in mere minutes, if not seconds, after seeing the ring; the only parallel I can think of is the orcs being stirred by the ring in attacking Isildur. Frodo abstained from killing him even after decades of having the ring, even when Gollum was a threat to his quest and most likely his life too. Folwren makes a better case about this.

I think that the ring to Gollum was sort of an addiction like drugs he hated it and loved it at the same time. He i think wanted to be freed from his addiction and become a good person. Just like any addict wants to be free from his addiction.
So i think that he deserved life yet his death saved the world from certain doom.

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Boro

But let's not forget the power and the influence of the Ring in this situation.

I don't think that anyone is forgetting the important part that the Ring plays in Gollum's murder of Deagol, which in itself leads to the later heinous acts he commits.

What Folwren has shown, and what I have attempted to show, is that it did not affect any other character (outside those in the service of Sauron) in anything like the same way. The reference to Boromir is a fair one but, as has been noted, Boromir struggled for weeks, if not months, to resist the lure of the Ring. Gollum succumbed in a matter of seconds. Moreover, with Boromir's death in attempting to save Merry and Pippin and in his final words to Aragron, he is essentially portrayed as being required to atone for what he has done. Regardless of the part the Ring played, he is adjudged wrong for having attempted to seize it by force from Frodo.

In any event, to continue Lal's courtroom analogy, the Ring might have been regarded as a mitigating factor when sentencing Gollum for the murder of Deagol, but it would not have absolved him from liability.