Mercy & Justice

This obviously stemmed from Merchant of Venice and since I can't seem to think of anything else to write about, let's just get to it. So we all know that Mercy is a higher value than Justice as you have to forgive and forget what others did to you no matter how drastic it was. And merciful people tend to ( at least in books and movies ) be rewarded in one way or another in the end while the people who do not forgive are punished with Shylock being a very obvious and prominent example. But what exactly is the boundary between mercy and Justice? And what is deserving of being granted mercy or what is beyond help and forgiveness and Justice should just be served and punish the person?

Now that I have foolishly just set myself up with a few difficult points, let me explain my point of view. To me Mercy is essentially letting a person who has harmed you in one way or another and should be punished go. It does not mean that to be merciful you have to forgive the person. You just let him of the hook as you believe that he deserves another chance. Mercy is not forgive and forget, it's just forget.

Point Numbah 2. Whether Justice or Mercy should be meted out all depends on you. What I believe is irrelevant as your feelings towards the person decide what he gets. But for me I would only punish the person if he did it intentionally knowing full well what was going to happen and knows the consequences. There are some criminals out there that were influenced by other people which made them ,well, bad. Some of them probably do not realize the full extent of the consequences and do not understand what exactly they were doing. I would punish people like murderers who go about killing people with every intention to do so.