How would Batman feel if the Joker was to be executed?

[Ziggy Stardust]

Say that the Joker did a Federal offense(which I'm SHOCKED he's never been accused/sentenced of, to the best of my knowledge). The catch is, this Federal offense is such that it warrants the death penalty.

How would Batman react to this?

Or say Joker did his usual things in a foreign country and was captured and slated for execution.

What would Batman do?

[Stressfactor]

As I understand it, the reason why the Joker has never been executed is because he still keeps being judged as insane and in the United States it's illegal for us to execute someone who is determined to be mentally ill and therefore not in complete control of his/her actions.

Also, the Joker is still an American citizen so the State Department would probably have to try to defend/prevent him from going to trial in a foreign court.



All that being said, IF (and that's a big if) the Joker were ever determined to be completely SANE and committed a crime deserving of the death penalty and then had a FAIR trial, went through the appeals process, and STILL ended up with the death penalty I'd say Batman would be okay with it because the law would have done it's job fairly.

[Patrick Gerard]

As I understand it, the reason why the Joker has never been executed is because he still keeps being judged as insane and in the United States it's illegal for us to execute someone who is determined to be mentally ill and therefore not in complete control of his/her actions.

Also, the Joker is still an American citizen so the State Department would probably have to try to defend/prevent him from going to trial in a foreign court.

All that being said, IF (and that's a big if) the Joker were ever determined to be completely SANE and committed a crime deserving of the death penalty and then had a FAIR trial, went through the appeals process, and STILL ended up with the death penalty I'd say Batman would be okay with it because the law would have done it's job fairly.

Some points.

The insanity defense is often misunderstood by critics of it and genre fiction writers. It doesn't protect the mentally ill. It requires that someone be unaware of the moral implications of their actions.

Actually, nobody knows the Joker's citizenship. Quraq claimed he was one of theirs and made him an ambassador to give him diplomatic immunity, which is another concept writers misunderstand. Diplomatic immunity is more for things like speeding and parking tickets and basically gives diplomats similar perks to a beat cop. It's not a license to kill. Thing is, the Joker's citizenship is undetermined.

And sanity isn't the standard for avoiding the death penalty. Awareness of moral culpability is. Gotham City basically has some kind of weird fantasy higher standard. Anywhere else in the country would fry these criminals.

[Slewo.O]

I thought Joker was an ambassador for Iran. Either way though, I remember reading that Joker managed to get away with insanity since he has a bunch of good lawyers. How that always gets him off the hook is another thing entirely.

[Hugin]

Some points.

The insanity defense is often misunderstood by critics of it and genre fiction writers. It doesn't protect the mentally ill. It requires that someone be unaware of the moral implications of their actions.

Actually, nobody knows the Joker's citizenship. Quraq claimed he was one of theirs and made him an ambassador to give him diplomatic immunity, which is another concept writers misunderstand. Diplomatic immunity is more for things like speeding and parking tickets and basically gives diplomats similar perks to a beat cop. It's not a license to kill. Thing is, the Joker's citizenship is undetermined.

And sanity isn't the standard for avoiding the death penalty. Awareness of moral culpability is. Gotham City basically has some kind of weird fantasy higher standard. Anywhere else in the country would fry these criminals.

There are states with absolutely no death penalty, I always figured Gotham was located in one of them.

The other option, of course, is that the first judge to sentence Joker to death was poisoned. The second one blew up when he banged his gavel. The third one just sent Joker to Arkham.

[Tyr]

I figured he'd be serious, and quite so at that.

[scs]

How would Batman react to this?

Depends on who's writing and editing that week.

[Ray G.]

There was actually a story about this. Devil's Advocate. It turned out there was some evidence that he wasn't the real culprit in that specific crime, and Batman wound up having to save him.

[Weeto]

It really surprises me that I've never really seen the whole death sentence issue being explored in comics. It would be pretty interesting if a load of supervillains were facing execution and a dispute possibly along the lines of Marvel's Civil War but perhaps less violent and more political could decide the outcome.

I'd actually like to see a group of killer superheroes who act as judge, jury and executioner against their enemies. Could even be a split in the JLA or the Avengers depending on which company had it.

[Slewo.O]

It really surprises me that I've never really seen the whole death sentence issue being explored in comics. It would be pretty interesting if a load of supervillains were facing execution and a dispute possibly along the lines of Marvel's Civil War but perhaps less violent and more political could decide the outcome.

I'd actually like to see a group of killer superheroes who act as judge, jury and executioner against their enemies. Could even be a split in the JLA or the Avengers depending on which company had it.

Didn't we call those guys the Authority and the Hyperclan?