"It Must Be a Great Consolation to You to Reflect That My Action, While Morally Reprehensible, Does Not Constitute Murder"

"The Mallinson Case."
By K. H. Hartley (?-?).
First appearance: Worlds of Tomorrow #24, Summer 1970.
Short short story (7 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
(Note: Text is faded.)

"Never again will that same individual go about in the world—he has forever been subtracted from the human sum."

In today's legal system, there seems to be a conscious effort to make the punishment fit the crime; in the case of the Crown v. Commander Mallinson of the Survey Service, however, the question is: Does the crime fit the punishment? . . .

Comment: The basic premise of this story was also the basis of a Babylon 5 episode (HERE) twenty-five years later.

Resource:
- Our story is the only one credited to K. H. Hartley, whoever he or she is or was (HERE).

The bottom line: "It was wrong. It was like arresting the gun for murder."
― The Player on the Other Side
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