Perfect
Justice
Oisin Horgan
Skerries CC, Dublin
Imagine this. It's the near
future. A dark forbidding skyscraper dominates a city skyline. All is
grimly peaceful until a solitary scream assassinates the stillness of
the night.
Under the emotionless white
light of energy efficient illumination, somewhere high in that skyscraper,
a man has just awoken. He is in a warm bed in a sterile room. He can not
remember how he came to be there. He has absolutely no recollection of
anything before the moment that he opened his eyes. He realises that he
doesn't even know what he looks like, and starts to scream again.
The night is now filled with
energy and movement. Medical staff burst into his room. A group of orderlies
hold him down while a nurse roughly sedates him. His spiralling panic
dissipates in a drug-induced fog.
When he next comes to, it
is in a more controlled and gradual manner. The drugs wear off slowly
and a trained psychiatrist gently counsels him back to a stable reality.
He is told by one of his many doctors that he is a volunteer for a new
government programme. Using cutting-edge surgery and a recently pioneered
drug programme, his memory and opinions have been wiped clean. He is now
a clean slate. This achievement of a perfectly functioning, unbiased human
was one of the primary aims of the programme. The doctor continues, explaining
that he is to be educated in a controlled environment as the ideal moral
citizen.
His education begins. He is
taught the concepts of ownership and values. Society’s need to maintain
law and order is explained. Minor crimes and case studies are examined
and suitable punishments for them explored. The patient is never allowed
to come into contact with the world. He is left untainted. Independent
watchdog committees and curious members of the public constantly monitor
his education. They watch him on video surveillance cameras. The cameras
broadcast 24 hours a day over the Internet, in stereo.
After two months his education
is complete. There is a two-week break; time provided for anyone concerned
about the impartiality of his education to lodge an appeal. The patient
remains isolated during this time. Two weeks after the completion of his
education, the patient’s suspicions that this was all leading up to something
important are confirmed. His doctors come to him in the morning, after
his breakfast. They explain that the government programme he has been
taking part in was set up to solve a difficult problem.
They reveal the problem -
how to determine a fair punishment for a particularly serious crime. As
he is now considered the ideal moral citizen, it will be up to him to
decide on the punishment for those that are proved guilty of a certain
crime. He is glad that the waiting is over. He is confident that he will
serve justice in a fair manner. He is looking forward to having his memories
returned to him after his role is finished.
The court is assembled. A
judge presides over the event, functioning to guide those involved in
their tasks. To the left-hand side of the judge, the patient sits in the
witness box. Doctors surround him.
The judge announces to all
present that the trial of this crime has already taken place, that the
man standing on the pedestal in shackles has been proved guilty beyond
all doubt of the crime we are going to look at today. All that is left
to be decided is a suitably fair punishment for his crime. Throughout
all, the guilty party stands ramrod straight with a blank expression on
his face. The patient confirms that he understands his role.
Conscious of the video cameras
that remain pointed at him, conscious of the millions of people watching
him through those cameras, the patient begins to learn the facts of the
crime. The main screen is slowly filled with bullet pointed text clinically
describing the crime in its entirety. Name... Age... Left her house at...The
patient’s stomach starts to tighten as he learns of the brutal rape and
murder of a young woman a year ago. He feels compelled to look at the
man in shackles. He feels nauseous as he looks at the blank expression
the man still wears. The sickening details finally stop appearing on the
screen. "You have now borne witness to the crime. Now you must decide
on an appropriate punishment for it", the judge spoke formally.
After a long considering silence,
the patient looks at the guilty man. Fighting the nausea that again rises
inside him he comes to his decision. "I judge the crime I have born witness
to here today as truly heinous. I believe that nothing short of death
by lethal injection could possibly be a fair punishment for this crime."
The patient is kindly thanked
for his participation in the government programme and is told that he
can now have his memories returned to him. A doctor comes forward and
prepares for injection the delicate cocktail of drugs that will trigger
the recall of his memories. As the needle enters the patients arm he is
relieved that his job is over. He looks again at the details of the crime
on the giant screen while waiting for his memories to return. His gaze
lingers on the name of the young victim. He wonders who she was. Like
a gentle caress, the victim’s face appears in his mind. He wonders if
he knew her before he became involved with the government programme? Her
face, and the tight red shirt she wore the day he...
His bladder empties itself
almost silently onto the floor as a slight, bitter smile appears on the
judge’s face and the actor playing the guilty man steps down off the pedestal
and starts to take off his shackles. As the drugs slowly start to paralyse
him, the patient realises that he has just sentenced himself to death.
A perfect justice.
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