Did Gollum deserve death?

[Boromir88]

You should have qualified this as a personal statement. As it appeared in the text, I thought it was Tolkien's; I spent some time searching for it.~Raynor

My mistake, I forgot to wrap 'quotes' around the actual letter I was pointing out, it's fixed now. I think I wrote that post at 2am in the morning, so hope you can forgive me.

alatar, good points, and I don't think anyone is trying to absolve Gollum of all the blame here. As Folwren so eloquently argued, Gollum reacted to the Ring in a way that nobody else had (he killed for it!). That to me must be some indication of Gollum's pre-existing wickedness (and has been commented on countless times he already was 'wicked' previously).

The debate however is does Gollum deserve to have been killed/executed...etc. For me, it's no, because I think the 'lesson' is it's not the people of Middle-earth's (or our own) decision.

The 'law' could have come down and decide to have killed Gollum at several points in the story. Frodo thinks Bilbo should have killed Gollum, the family (and community) Gollum lived in could have killed him, Faramir could have had his rangers kill him, but in each of these instances they spared Gollum. And as Gandalf I think accurately states...'Bilbo's Pity may rule the fate of many.' Well I say, 'Everyone's Pity [towards Gollum] may rule the fate of many.' And indeed I would also say that turns out to be true.

Gandalf had hope of Gollum's salvation, I don't see why I shouldn't. Indeed he was close to it, but Sam was unable to find pity for Gollum until it was too late for Gollum's sake (in the Sammath Naur).

Beregond's life was spared when he could have been slapped with the death penalty:

And the King said to Beregond: ’Beregond, by your sword blood was spilled in the Hallows, where that is forbidden. Also you left your post without leave of Lord or of Captain. For these things, of old, death was the penalty. Now therefor I must prounounce your doom.
’All penalty is remitted for your valour in battle, and still more because all you did was for the love of the Lord Faramir. Nontheless you must leave the Guard of the Citadel, and yo much go forth from the City of Minas Tirith.’~The Steward and the King

Saruman and Grima could have been killed by Theoden and co...I doubt anyone would see that as wrong and complain. But the important point is they didn't, they had the pity to spare Grima and Saruman (and offer them salvation at several times throughout the story).

This whole 'sparing people from the death penalty' seems to occur quite a lot throughout the story. So, I'm taking it as there is an important moral lesson Tolkien is writing about in his story...and that is of Mercy and Pity. While the 'law' says for murder your punishment is death; is that the 'right' thing to do? Need I remind everyone of Gandalf's words to Frodo that have been quoted more times than I can recall? But instead of quoting Gandalf, I'm going to use another one that no one sees a lot:

But even before this wickedness of Morgoth was suspected the Wise in the Elder Days taught always that the Orcs were not 'made' by Melkor, and therefore were not in their origin evil. They might have become irredeemable (at least by Elves and Men), but they remained within the Law. That is, that though of necessity, being the fingers of the hand of Morgoth, they must be fought with the utmost severity, they must not be dealt with in their own terms of cruelty and treachery. Captives must not be tormented, not even to discover information for the defence of the homes of Elves and Men. If any Orcs surrendered and asked for mercy, they must be granted it, even at a cost. This was the teaching of the Wise, though in the horror of the War it was not always heeded.~HoMe X; Morgoth's Rings

Though the teachings of the Wise were not always listened to when regarding Orcs...Orcs were not beyond some kind of redemption. If Tolkien brings up Orcs pleading for Mercy, I think it's reasonable to say that Orcs were capable of pleading for Mercy. I hope this casts some interesting light upon the Gollum question of this thread.