Living in Fear

[Angrboda]

That’s a fair point. Then allow me to rephrase. To what degree should sympathy affect the law?  For me the law is almost binary; you did it or you didn’t do it. I understand the why a person does something might affect sentencing, but I’m trying to get my head around the justifiableness of a crime.

I don't think it's correct to say that justice and mercy are opposites. 

Wikipedia starts the entry on "justice" with this:

Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve

So if a person deserves mercy, then mercy is just. 

Maybe it makes sense to separate the guilty/not guilty binary of the verdict from the wisdom of the sentence. A person guilty of a crime, in some circumstances, might not deserve to be punished. In an ideal world the judge would give the criminal exactly what he ought to get, and I think that in some cases, if the criminal was in bad condition at the time of the crime, it might include getting him rehab or a job or a place to live. Or maybe everyone is so mean-spirited that they think Jean Valjean had it coming.

This is an important theme in the New Testament. Because we all know that perfect justice is impossible in the real world, the Bible shows Jesus wisely splitting exactly the right hairs to give what ought to be given -- in the case of the woman taken in adultery, for example.

Mercy is compassion or forgiveness for a person within your power to help or hurt. Compassion without forgiveness is inert. Forgiveness omits the acts of justice.