NO Mercy! Saving a career or serving justice?

Saving a career or serving justice? After reading Malcolm Gladwell’s No Mercy, I do not believe the physicist student was punished appropriately. Although he may have been a critical part to Cambridge University’s science department, his action to poison his teacher was still immoral. The student’s consequences were far from detrimental. Judging from most schools’ codes of conduct, any infraction to critically harm someone else usually results in expulsion. In my opinion, Oppenheimer should’ve accumulated charges for attempted murder as well as expulsion from Cambridge University. Probation as a punishment was not suitable to his infraction with the law. Attempted murder upon a school official should definitely result in banishment from that particular school, and placed appropriately on a personal record. I don’t think restricting the student from every school would’ve been very useful, for the simple fact he was merely a mini genius.

Robert Oppenheimer was the Cambridge University student who tried to poison his professor. In more professional terms, he created the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer studied theoretical physics, which led to him working on calculating the critical mass of uranium. In reference to Cambridge University, their science department probably realized the positive capabilities of Oppenheimer’s fascination with the subject, therefore not kicking him out of the school. In more ways than one, we can definitely conclude that the University in England held the future career objectives of Robert Oppenheimer higher rather than, serving him the justice he ultimately deserved.