Can criminals judge?

[Guaranteed]

Poll question: Can criminals judge?

Now, I don't mean professionally judge. What I'm asking is: if someone has done some pretty horrible deeds themselves, is it still alright to point fingers at others and make judgments? Is that still justice?

And, just to throw this into the mix, don't we all sin? If that's the case, and sinners can't be judges, who will hand out justice? Or is it blatant hypocrisy that is forbidden?

Can justice even exist?

What brought this on was another GD thread discussing the killings of Uday and Kusay, and whether or not our soldiers, some of whom have done some raping and killing of their own, have the right to take the lives of those who rape and kill.

So, yeah, that's a lot of questions. Just keep them in mind and give an explanation, if you would, when answering the title question.

Can criminals judge?

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Yes

It's logical to think that if a criminal has enough of a capacity to understand "right from wrong" that they will be able to judge that some other act is a crime (or not).

Moral imperfection in humans -- hammartia in Greek, as it was used in the Bible -- does not excuse us from exercising moral decision making. In fact, it compels us to work that much harder to overcome our defects.

And "criminals" are simply human beings who have committed a crime (and been subsequently found guilty). They aren't a separate species, although our society dehumanizes them whenever possible -- the moral drive to punish criminal acts and to restore the criminal to society are bound together in the same impulse.

--bkl

[booksenkatz]

2. Not sure, because

if a guy's in jail, chances are it's probably because he showed really lousy judgment. Hmmmmmmmmmmm......
:crazy: