Should someone be forgiven for their evil past if they have amnesia?

Amnesia would be even more reason to imprison them, because if they forgot what they did, then there would be no learning effect, so the probability they would do the same crimes again would be even higher.

"Hey that guy who tortured, raped, and killed your family got amnesia! So it's ok, we've released him. DON'T YOU FEEL THE JUSTICE??"

At this rate, it's going to be hard deciding on the top ten worst fleurbleue posts

@Zarutaku So for you it's basically a "you may feel like you're innocent but we're gonna put you in prison just in case you ever feel like doing it again" situation? (is the meme below how you envision them?)



But realistically, wouldn't it be more likely for them to learn what they did and subsequently do their best to make sure it doesn't happen again?

I think yes. Consciousness is poorly understood. You cannot guarantee that a person with full amnesia is even the same self and not a separate consciousness within the same brain.

Would you judge an identical copy of someone for something their clone committed? It doesn't seem right just because their brain and body are biologically the same.



I'm pretty sure that if your family is killed, no amount of justice would be sufficient either way, let alone justice against someone who doesn't even remember their name and done at the hands of the state.

Imagine hearing the news; "Your wife and kids are dead but do not worry, for we have apprehended the body of the guy who committed it, and now we'll give him some real tough time but only after we explain to him what year and country he is in."

Seems naive, if someone forgot everything about themselves and their past, they'd be similar to a demented lunatic without sanity, they couldn't be trusted.

"Should someone be forgiven for their evil past if they have amnesia?"

Amnesia does not erase crimes, the perpetrator of the crimes must still pay for the crimes committed, if the victims and those affected wish to forgive they can forgive, but the criminal still has to suffer the consequences of their actions and receive treatment to try to fix Amnesia.

@Zarutaku I'm not exactly sure how forgetting everything about yourself and your past would make someone a demented lunatic without sanity. Or is that what you think would become of you in such a situation?

Wait, so the consequence for their actions is to receive treatment for their amnesia...? I don't think such a thing actually exists, though.

Because forgetting all this would presuppose severe brain damage, which is also why many demented people become considerably dangerous with time.

@149597871 So you think they should be set free? I think legally if such a thing were to happen, they would be institutionalized in a psychiatric facility since there is technically no way of ever knowing if they will get their memories back or not.

Why would *my* forgiveness depend on someone's consciousness? I may forgive them just on a whim, or hate them forever - who knows? Might depend more on the day of the week or the moon phase, than their consciousness, repentance or whatever.

Ah, I read this funny story about Canadian court freeing a sexual offender because he was high - is it related somehow?

@fleurbleue

That's not what I said, I said that in addition to receiving punishment, the perpetrator of the crimes must also receive treatment to alleviate the Amnesia, in some cases this works, not all.

Are you talking about the Daviault case? That's really old. The guy was found guilty in my province, but the Supreme Court of Canada ruled him not guilty (also, did I ever mention that I was an independentist?)