In the process of creating a new nation in the game world I'm running, I've had to put some thoughts to the laws and punishments of the land. For murder, all possessions acquired, distributed to next of kin of victim/s and death by crucifixion.
But wait, a player character was murdered. They caught the murderer and instead of killing them, they gave the murderers to the authorities and had their companion raised.
Well, he was killed, so that goes under that law, but he was raised, so that makes a little quirk for the law doesn't it?
So how do you think the ability to resurrect someone would effect the laws of the land in general, let alone other magic abilities that would change normal circumstances for consequences of actions and punishments for them?
I think that if the victim were raised it should logically be his/her prerogative to press charges. At the very least it should be very easy to sue the murderer for the cost of the resurrection. In fact in a particularly enlightened country, perhaps the default punishment for murder is to pay to raise the victim either by fine or a period of indentured servitude and only if the victim cannot be brought back are any harsher sanctions applied.
However, this depends highly on the legal sophistication of the kingdom. In my examples above I am assuming a fairly modern system of justice, or at the very least one resembling that of Ancient Rome.
I would also say that using magic to reverse a lawful punishment (regenerating a hand severed for theft or raising someone who was executed) would in any sophisticated high-magic society be a crime in and of itself. Probably punishable by a fine or prison sentence and at worst prosecuted as an accessory to the original crime.
It starts with your general laws. Just because something can be undone doesn't make it not a crime. If I throw a brick through a shop window, it doesnt make it not a crime because they can get it fixed.
So really its a matter of whether or not your society treats murder and attempted murder differently. At the very least by a modern standard, killing someone who is then raised/ressurected should be attempted murder. But honestly, unless you have a really complex legal system I wouldn't treat them differently.
I agree with the above poster.
Whether or not the guy gets raised later has nothing to do with the fact that someone murdered him in cold blood in his sleep.
As for how justice system should handle it:
Murder gets the gallows. Possessions get either 1) sold to pay for the raising of the victim and compensate for their trouble. or 2) if not enough possessions to get a raise, the cash goes to their family or failing that, to their faith.. or failing that, to the poor.
Though I have to admit I thought this was going to be a thread about using magic as punishment/incarceration rather than what it turned into.
It could be interesting though- if you killed someone in self defense they could then be raised, tried, and possibly killed for their crime.
Someone killed by mistake could be raised and the mistake actually rectified. The same is true of destroyed property. Rather than paying the cost of replacement you could just pay the cost of repair (if cheaper and/or practicable).
Depending on the alignment of the society (or of the dictatorship, as appropriate) dead criminals could be Animated to perform menial labor the nobles didn't want to do, or to provide Martial assistance to the armies of the land. (or failing that- they could at least dig their own graves. lol)
-S
I think the "Sharn: City of Towers" Eberron book had the best set of fantasy laws/punishments anywhere. I highly recommend looking into it.