Did Gollum deserve death?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Mansun

With the Ring taken by the Nazgul, & the fall of Middle Earth beckoning, there is no knowing what Gandalf could have done to Butterbur. Maybe he would have decided there was no time to lose & give chase to battle the Ring off the Nazgul before they reached Mordor.

Actually, if Gandalf returned to Bree and found that the Ring was taken by the Nazgul (and Barney is responsible), I doubt even more that he would waste time with him. "Fool! You don't know what you've done!" - then he'd jump on the horse and be away. And, let's face it and I say it for the last time, he would not kill anyone just like that. That what you are speaking about is NOT Gandalf. After all (and it's funny that we are returning to the main topic of this thread from the other way), he did NOT kill Gollum, who - deserved or not deserved - was surely (at least from what we know) more "guilty" than Butterbur.

Originally Posted by Mansun

On the other hand, Gandalf would be seen as the fool for letting all the responsibility of Middle Earth lay on a letter which Butterbur was entrusted to deliver. This is very foolish & I doubt anybody here would have done the same thing for such an important matter. The wise would acknowledge that the safety of the Ring should come first, ahead of the aid of Saruman.

Sorry for the little irony, but you here speak exactly like Saruman. Logical, technical, but it does not work like that and never worked. Saruman - and you, apparently - would have chosen some sort of similar "better" way to take care of the fate of Middle-Earth. The question what fool would let the fate of the Middle Earth lay on a forgetful bartender is exactly the same as what fool would let the fate of the Middle-Earth lay on a little hobbit. Had Saruman been there instead of Gandalf, and had he been still "on the good side" and wanted to destroy the Ring (and not used it), I am quite sure he would have planned carefully each step to Mount Doom, sent at least six Rangers and one Elf Lord (like Glorfindel) with the Ring and also send some "decoy Fellowships" to force the Nazgul to split (oh, I'm getting too far to it... lovely idea), but I doubt it would've worked. Because ultimately, he'd have persuaded the Council to choose someone else than Frodo to carry the Ring, probably a strong Man, like... for example Boromir. We don't have to press too hard on our imagination to think of what would've happened.
Sorry for the little off-topicness...