Did Gollum deserve death?

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Boro

But let's not forget the power and the influence of the Ring in this situation.

I don't think that anyone is forgetting the important part that the Ring plays in Gollum's murder of Deagol, which in itself leads to the later heinous acts he commits.

What Folwren has shown, and what I have attempted to show, is that it did not affect any other character (outside those in the service of Sauron) in anything like the same way. The reference to Boromir is a fair one but, as has been noted, Boromir struggled for weeks, if not months, to resist the lure of the Ring. Gollum succumbed in a matter of seconds. Moreover, with Boromir's death in attempting to save Merry and Pippin and in his final words to Aragron, he is essentially portrayed as being required to atone for what he has done. Regardless of the part the Ring played, he is adjudged wrong for having attempted to seize it by force from Frodo.

In any event, to continue Lal's courtroom analogy, the Ring might have been regarded as a mitigating factor when sentencing Gollum for the murder of Deagol, but it would not have absolved him from liability.