There's this scene from the miniseries "Lonesome Dove" that I think perfectly summarizes true justice and how it needs to be served no matter one's personal feelings about things.
A group of cowboys finds out one of their number has been involved in a series of crimes. Gus Spoon, the man who fell into outlaw behavior, gets caught by his former friends, who are, for all intents and purposes, still his friends. When they finally catch up to him, they capture him and the outlaw band he's running with. They string up the gang, including Spoon, and after hanging the gang, they finally get to Spoon to hear his last words.
What's heartbreaking about this scene is that no one wants to hang Spoon. They still feel that brotherly bond with him despite his going wrong, but the code of the West is clear. Ride with outlaws, die with outlaws. To spare his friends the grief of having to be the ones to send their friend to the grave, Spoon kicks the horse he's on, effectively hanging himself.
Justice had to be served, no matter how painful it was.
As I'm watching the Lindsay Clancy trial and watching society divide itself over a woman who killed three of her children, I keep thinking about this scene, but not from the plight of Spoon. I keep thinking about the friends who had to hang him. They didn't want to do it, but they had to, because evil cannot be negotiated with, nor can it be given special favors depending on who it's existing in.
To turn your eyes from it only gives it more room to grow.
But so many in the public are willing to do so, and the reasons are many. For some it's spite. Spite for a "patriarchal system," spite for a specific set of values, spite for men, or even, as I've come across, spite for astrological signs.
But for so many others, it seems to be some level of sympathy or empathy for Clancy, and it's here that I feel my blood boil. You'd think that the spite part would be worse, but I don't think it is. At least with spite, I know my enemy. Sympathy for the devil is a much harder thing to fight the public on.
The claim from those who fall into that column is that she was suffering from a hormonal imbalance, which caused her to act in irrational ways, and that this is actually a common thing to happen to women. So common that it could've been them. As I've written previously, I'd advise these women to be very careful about using this as their reasoning as to why Clancy shouldn't face true justice. By that reasoning, women shouldn't be trusted with anything because they're one hormonal swing away from committing heinous mistakes, especially in leadership positions or even being trusted around their own children.
But the overall issue here is that the reasoning behind Clancy's evil act shouldn't matter. She committed an unforgivable atrocity, and for that act, she should be held to the same standard anyone else would have. To be sure, men who've killed their own children have been sentenced to death without so much confusion. Timothy Jones Jr. is a solid example of this. He killed his five children through strangulation in 2014 and claimed he heard voices tell him to do it. His insanity defense was shrugged off by the jury before they recommended the death penalty.
Clancy's case is strikingly similar. Claimed to hear voices, strangled her children, and submitted an insanity defense.
What's the difference between the two other than the sex of the murderer? Not much, but too many in the public see these cases as night and day, and behind that is sympathy for the plight of a woman who only did wrong because, according to the defense, so many people failed her before she got to that point.
Okay... so?
Even if that were true, that information is a great tool for prevention in the future. Perhaps we can use it as a way to take a closer look at our psychiatric system or how drugs affect the brain over time. It could definitely be the impetus for deeper and careful study into women's hormonal changes before, during, and after pregnancy, as well as the effects of drugs on the body during these changes. I personally don't think this is anything we should turn our back on at the best of times, much less wait for something atrocious to happen to take action.
But evil is still evil, and if we pardon evil because we feel sorry for the person who did heinous things because of their circumstance, then justice cannot be served with any kind of fairness or equality. If we can't have fair justice, then we can't have a civilization. Any crime can be pardoned because someone has a sob story that came before they murdered, raped, or severely injured someone. Like water in the cracks, evil will begin seeping into whatever space it can, erode the gaps, and let in more evil.
Even if you feel for a murderer, they are still a murderer, and justice has to be served. We can't make peace with evil. All it does is invite more of it to flourish wearing different masks.
