Shouldn't Lore Have Gotten a Trial?

[CoveTom]

What does prison even mean to an android that could, theoretically, be immortal? Prison sucks for us humans because it's a loss of finite life time we can't recover. But would an android feel the same way? Could an android serving years in prison even decide to go on a mental autopilot, as it were, to skip over even the boredom of prison?

All in all, I'm a lot more troubled by Kirk and Co. summarily re-freezing Khan at the end of Into Darkness. It seems far closer to execution than rehabilitation.

Anyone seen the TV movie Knight Rider 2000, the somewhat ill-fated sequel to Knight Rider? In it, the then future time of the year 2000 is depicted as having replaced prisons with cryogenic incarceration, where they freeze the prisoners. It is pointed out that doing that only delays the problem, it doesn't solve it. Unless you intend to leave them frozen forever in which case, why not execute them instead?

(I seem to reference Knight Rider a lot here lately. What can I say, I'm a child of the 80's!)

 

[BillJ]

All in all, I'm a lot more troubled by Kirk and Co. summarily re-freezing Khan at the end of Into Darkness. It seems far closer to execution than rehabilitation.

Since they are on Earth, I doubt the disposition of Khan would've been left up to Kirk.

 

[WarpCore]

In Descent, Data deactivates Lore and, I think, disassembles him. But Lore, dangerous as he is, is a sentient being. He should have the same rights as Data. He should've been put on trial and imprisoned. I would say deactivate only if he was given the death sentence, which TOS established the Federation doesn't do except only in one circumstance.

What does everyone else think? I know why it was done from a TV show point of view, but did Data have the right to do what he did?

KIRK: Because you murdered it. What is the penalty for murder?
M5: Death.
KIRK: And how will you pay for your acts of murder?
M5: This unit must die.

Two circumstances when it's convenient. Actually, it was whittled down to one later just to make Talos IV sound extra super duper bad after that episode. But it was already canon to unplug robots or convince them to unplug themselves once they'd misbehaved badly enough.

Lore had already spent some time in 'prison' floating around in space for a couple years and that didn't do anything to improve him. Deactivating him is just an expansion of clear and present danger. He's not even immediately harmed other than not being allowed to be evil for a few years.

Lore was shot in self-defense and that's what "deactivated" him. The idea that anyone would have an obligation to repair him and reactivate him for a trial would be exceptional. All the injured Borg are left to die aren't they?

 

[Airmandan]

Don't forget in Lower Decks they show a whole "prison" for synthetic beings that disagree with Starfleet ideals. Prime Directive works if you're a meat bag, but if you're synthetic, Starfleet has no problem imprisoning you against your will for crimes that they perceive.