forgiveness only goes as far as murdering a child

So I read an interesting study recently done by an American University. In the study, participants were taken into 2 separate rooms.
The Rules: There are 2 participants in each experiment. One of them must receive a good reward (such as a candy bar), one must receive a punishment of doing something undesirable (such as writing the same sentence 100 times).

One participant is given the opportunity to EITHER choose whether to assign the prize unilaterally, OR to flip a coin so that the prizes are decided fairly. The other participant would not know whether the coin was flipped or the prize was assigned unilaterally.

The majority of participants opted for flipping the coin, because it was more fair, BUT in 85% of the coin flips, the prize was awarded in the flippers favor. So it would seem that APPEARING fair is more important to the participant than actually BEING fair.

In similar blind studies, when the deciding participant was given complete privacy from the experimentors, the participant chose the reward over the punishment.

Equality and Fairness are ideals that we embrace... to a point.

Taken a step further: justice. We desire justice as long as the outcome is in our favor. We want justice...to protect our values, our kids, our society from perceived deviance.  We as Americans might be likely to do anything to make justice happen...to justify the decisions and sacrifices we made to ensure that we would be safe from immoral behavior. We would like to pretend for a moment that we are all miles away from living next door to or, heaven forbid, being people like those we angrily impose justice upon. We stay angry at any perceived threat that could change our world for the worse, and to prevent someone....anyone... from threatening what we have worked so hard for.  We make justice a priority...to protect the American way, our way.

It is a question that advocates for the poor face everyday.  Americans will help some, as long as it seems fair and in line with what our expectations are for ourselves and our fellow Americans. We'll support programs that will pay an electric bill but not a month's rent, or pay for some pre-approved medical care for innocent kids but restrict access to care for adults because they should be more responsible. After all, what incentive will they have if we give them everything for free?

How could we possibly keep people in line with forgiveness?  Forgiving people would cost us way too much...right?

My professor shared this story:

Visiting all the churches in the area, Robynn had a sense of what she was walking into. After all, this was a fairly rural town. So she decided to attend to the local Protestant church and start visiting Sunday morning classes. She wanted to find a morning class that wasn't afraid to talk about the reality of social issues.

As a sociology professor, she was used to the social justice banter between students in the classroom and among colleagues at the university where she worked. She expected a discussion that was more conservative than not, that Bible verses would be quoted and that there probably would not be complete agreement on what to do to solve these issues.

It was the Sunday after Casey Anthony was acquitted for murdering her 2 year old daughter. There were so many pieces of evidence to support a guilty verdict:

1. Her daughter had been missing for a month before she reported it to the authorities.  
2. She lied to the police about a nanny being responsible for kidnapping her child. 
3.  She owned a roll of duck tape that was an exact match to the tape found placed across her daughter's mouth when they found her dead body, which just happened to be buried close to the family's home. 
4. It was even determined that she was frequenting bars and dance clubs and entertaining her new boyfriend on a regular basis during the time her daughter was missing. 

So many details with so many coincidences encouraged a firm conviction in the eyes of the public. When they announced that Casey would only be convicted of lying to the police, the public maintained their outrage even though a jury of her peers decided that, without a firm explanation of the cause of death, she could not be held responsible for the murder. Some thought that she would fall victim to the death threats against her. Many believed that she should not be allowed to get away with it.

It was surprising how many were vocal about needing justice to vindicate the death of a little girl...to set an example for others in their community. As Robynn sat in the folding chairs in the basement of this church, the topic of Casey Anthony came up.

At first, there was talk about fairness. "It wasn't fair that the little girl had to die... And how she must have suffered... And how it could happen to any of us, with a killer on the loose." Prayers for her family were offered. As passions of the church members increased, the conversation shifted from prayers for peace and healing to how "Casey will get what is coming to her. Someone should do to her what did to her daughter. After all she has done, she can't possibly make it to heaven. Amen?" 

Robynn shook her head at this call for support for revenge in a church. "I know I am just visiting but.." Everyone was quiet and turned to look at the unfamiliar voice coming from the back of the room. "What about forgiveness? Where does that come in to all of this?"

"Don't you understand? She killed an innocent little girl." A man in the front row replied, astonished at Robynn's audacity to question his comments.
"Not according to our justice system. She's been acquitted." Robynn replied.
"She needs to learn a lesson." he said.
"Is that our job?" Robynn asked.
The crowd became restless. 
"Can't we trust that justice was done and focus on the forgiveness part? Who are we to judge? Her child is dead. What more do you want?"
"I want her to pay for what she did until justice is served."

It was then that Robynn realized that justice was far more important to him than any level of forgiveness could be. In church or not...it does not matter whether or not Casey was guilty. As soon as the case showed signs of unfairness on Casey's part - her "bad mothering", her irresponsible drinking - a judgement was made. She was guilty regardless of the legal outcome. And society was not about to let her forget it.

So tell me where you stand on the issue of fairness, and forgiveness?
Forgiveness is great when it falls in your favor... but when it's not, don't we want to punish those who violate our code?

I'm interested to hear your thoughts.