A Tangled Road to Justice by Olan Thorensen

Author:Olan Thorensen [Thorensen, Olan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

When the last person had left and the door was closed, Bossev turned to the three of us—me, Millen, and Felzoni.

Bossev asked, “Well, was that the easy part or the hard part? We’re claiming Ferantis and Neliseranda are guilty. Now what do we do?”

“I suggest we agree whether the two men must be punished,” said Millen.

Bossev frowned. “I thought we already did that.”

“No, in effect we have said they should be punished. That’s theoretical. Are we ready to say they must be punished? If yes, then no pushing the responsibility off on someone else or claiming there’s nothing we can do.”

“But what can we do?” asked Bossev. “If we lock them up anywhere, it will be only a matter of time before Cherkoff breaks them out, and we will have accomplished nothing and invited retaliation.”

I’ve never been one to beat around the bush and, in this case, dally around issues that could go on indefinitely.

“Let’s cut to the chase,” I said. “The most serious crime is murder. What is the usual sentence for murder on Astrild?”

“There is no standard for all the planet,” said Felzoni. “Different waves of immigrants, different histories of the cities and outlying regions, and lack of central authority have resulted in the whole gamut from incarceration to execution. As you might expect, the farther you get from large population centers, the more severe the punishment. For one thing, it’s the practicality—Oslo may have the population and resources to house prisoners long term, but as life becomes harder the farther out you go, people are less likely or less able to maintain prisons.

“I was judge and mediator for the Justice area for eleven years. We had three murders during that time. Two happened in the heat of arguments. In both cases, the killers had no previous history of violence and seemed genuinely remorseful. As it happened, one man owned a farm and the other a business in town. I ruled that all their possessions be confiscated and sold, the money going to the victim’s family, in one case, and to the town, in the other, since the victim had no immediate family. The men were then taken to Oslo, released, and told never to return to Justice.”

“So, you dumped them off on someone else,” I said.

Felzoni shrugged. “If they weren’t judged likely to repeat and it wasn’t a deliberate act, what were we supposed to do? Besides, Oslo has never been willing to help places like Justice and has never agreed to take prisoners, so the hell with them.”

I suppressed a smile. It was the first time the old judge had expressed emotions or hard-nosed opinions.

“Anyway, in a third case, the man murdered the new boyfriend of an ex-wife. It was a deliberate, planned killing, and the boyfriend was tortured before he died. The killer admitted everything and showed no remorse. Everyone involved in the trial agreed that the man was likely to commit more murders. Even in a prison, he would be dangerous. With my approval,

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