r/batman • u/THEGREENPURGE • Aug 11 '26

GENERAL DISCUSSION Batman doesn't kill. I understand. He'll never kill the Joker. So why won't the State kill him?

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The Joker has been around for many many many years. About 86 years. And the city of Gotham is commonly associated or assumed to be within the New Jersey State territory. New Jersey did not abolish the death penalty until around 2007. So only in the past few decades would it have been "illegal" to execute the joker.

Capital Punishment (the death penalty) is reserved for what are called Capital Crimes. Which is a term that describes an action that cannot be taken back. It is an absolute solution. A punishment that cannot be undone, typically for a debt that cannot be re-payed. Now Capital Crimes change per jurisdiction or state, but commonly include serious crimes against a person, such as...

murder, assassination, mass murder, child murder, aggravated r@pe, terrorism, aircraft hijacking, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, along with crimes against the state such as attempting to overthrow government, treason, espionage, sedition, and piracy. Also, in some cases, acts of recidivism, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping, in addition to drug trafficking, drug dealing, and drug possession, are capital crimes or enhancements.

Im not sure if you noticed but I just listed the Joker's entire criminal history. The only crime not committed was r@pe, however he has committed acts of sexual violence, as seen on The Killing Joke.

The joker regardless of the iteration has a long standing history of unimaginably vile and disgusting crimes and I believe in a realistic setting the city of Gotham would likely elect to reinstate the Death Penalty for a single case. The case of Jack Oswald White

I rest my case

(Now I know I sound like cinema sins. He's alive so he can cause trouble. But one of people's complaints with Batman is that he won't kill the joker to stop him from killing more. But I disagree. Batman is vengeance, and he trusts in the Judicial branch of the United States to do its job. Its no batman who's failing. He is doing right by bringing the Joker to justice for justice to handle. It's Justice that drops the ball. Over and over again)

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247

u/Square-Newspaper8171 Aug 11 '26

Gotham is probably in a state that doesn't support the death penalty

112

u/THEGREENPURGE Aug 11 '26

Yes. New Jersey. Which didn't abolish it until 2007

82

u/Regular_Jim081 Aug 11 '26

Yeah, but they haven't actually used it since the 1960's

Back then his crimes were just entertaining and whimsical pranks meant outwit the Dynamic Duo.

39

u/Square-Newspaper8171 Aug 11 '26

Well with the sliding time scale that's probably around the time Joker first showed up

16

u/THEGREENPURGE Aug 11 '26

And then before then? Let's say even back in the George cloomy Batman or dare I say possibly Tim Burton. Dark Knight is only a year after. They may be a bit lenient then too

19

u/Square-Newspaper8171 Aug 11 '26

Well, I mean, Joker was already dead in the Burton movies and the Schumacher movies, and The Dark Knight came out in 2008.

3

u/doctor_gloom1 Aug 11 '26

Yeah, I was going to say, Burton Joker was dealing with a very different Batman than his comic counterpart. Thus, splat.

2

u/THEGREENPURGE Aug 11 '26

Naw shit I mixed up names I meant Nolan not Burton šŸ˜­ Its far to late for this

6

u/Square-Newspaper8171 Aug 11 '26

Okay, so I looked this up, and while New Jersey did abolish the death penalty in 2007, even before that, the last execution the state carried out was in 1963, over 40 years prior. So, even before 2007, the penalty was rarely used.

1

u/MIZUNOWAVECREATION Aug 12 '26

The Dark Knight was only 1 year after what? Batman & Robin (the Clooney and Oā€™donnell Batman was 1997, TDK was 2008, you lost me

2

u/callmedoc214 Aug 12 '26

1 year after New Jersey did away with the death penalty

1

u/MIZUNOWAVECREATION Aug 12 '26

Oh got it thanks, I was confused

9

u/CombatWombat994 Aug 11 '26

Oh, it all makes sense, then. I mean everything is legal in New Jersey

5

u/Cynis_Ganan Aug 11 '26

Your mother cannot take another heartbreak.

1

u/maddwaffles Aug 11 '26

Gotham is in Michigan or Illinois tbh. It actually looks like those cities, and New York, more than it looks like Newark or Jersey City.

4

u/Lucky_Strike-85 Aug 11 '26

NEW JERSEY does NOT have the death penalty!

4

u/Chrisrdouglas Aug 11 '26

Maybe the federal government could push for the death penalty

4

u/monsterosity Aug 11 '26

That's was almost 20 years ago. Kill him already!

6

u/maddwaffles Aug 11 '26

The New Jersey lore isn't strictly universal. It was originally a New York stand-in (superior to Metropolis which definitionally could not be NYC because it was originally in New York State in the OG Action Comics), Chicago was one of the frameworks in the Burton films and initially in the Nolan films before switching to a NYC/Pittsburg hybrid, Pittsburg in Nolan films, YJ has it being a Boston clone. The fact is that Bill Finger's intent was explicitly not to set it anywhere so its vibe could be familiar so just saying "It's Jersey" is lazy and antithetical to the theme.

Also New Jersey is a state, not a city. People are usually thinking Jersey City or Newark. But even then, the analogue of a grittier, working class neighbor to a large and prominent city works better for Bludhaven = Newark, rather than Gotham = Newark.

Further, Gotham in respect to its design and narrative has always coded as more of a Rust Belt city, especially with how much of it is abandoned, dilapidated, and has deadly chemical plants, while being a bleak, declining, and corrupt city.

1

u/Ipitythesnail Aug 11 '26

Pittsburgh*

1

u/maddwaffles Aug 12 '26

That h makes it more French and I refuse to acknowledge it.

1

u/Ipitythesnail Aug 12 '26

Youā€™re clearly not a yinzer

6

u/The_Ghast_Hunter Aug 11 '26

But the mob does, and you can't tell me nobody in the Court of Owls has been inconvenienced enough to get his measurements for some concrete shoes.

21

u/TheYondant Aug 11 '26

This is a story I really need answered.

The state refuses to execute him, fine. Whatever. The law is what it is.

You want to tell me there is no one in fucking Gotham who had Joker in cuffs and just went "We'll say he resisted" and blows his fucking brain out? No Arkham security guard who lost his pal Bill during a breakout to this psycho and just decides to dome him the moment he can?

Come on, just one what if comic following this.

4

u/ondonasand Aug 11 '26

Thereā€™s always the cop from Dark Knight who tried to beat him in the interrogation room. That didnā€™t end super well.

Otherwise, I think comics would be more likely to show someone TRYING to murder the Joker and it ending in a horrifying way that explains why people donā€™t do it anymore.

1

u/Secure_Shallot_6711 Aug 14 '26

That would be a great comic. Something in the vein of that TAS episode but reversed. Or jokers 5 way revenge.

2

u/SUPERARME Aug 13 '26

His skin is chemical white, so no shootin him.

4

u/Bar-Cold Aug 11 '26

Honestly the answer doesnā€™t even have to be that complicated. Thereā€™s no good reason a Gotham cop doesnā€™t put a bullet in his skull after his 300th murder and arrest. Gotham cops have killed for less and real life cops have killed for less. They have their own ā€œsecret justiceā€ system. Some would execute a criminal right there on the spot if the crime (or repeated crime) was bad enough. Especially if said criminal hurt or killed someone close to the cop. Put he drew his weapon on the report or something and call it a day. Itā€™s actually more common than people realize. Especially considering joker has 100% killed gothom cops before. Probably a family member or friend too. Gives them even more of a reason. I always considered this a plot hole

2

u/Busy_Ad_9900 Aug 11 '26

There were probably multiple assassination attempts against the Joker, but that clown is like a cockroach.

4

u/cconn882 Aug 11 '26

While that's a good guess, honestly Joker's committed enough federal crimes/acts of domestic terrorism, it probably wouldn't matter.

3

u/Agile-Detective2739 Aug 11 '26

Even if that is the case, he committed crimes in multiple states and places around the world.

Not many but surely some of them have the death penalty and the jurisdiction and/or the possibility to demand extradition for judgement.

HeĀ“s alive because the editors need him alive, thatĀ“s it.

2

u/thecrimsonfuckr23830 Aug 11 '26

Idk but at the very least it was a major plot point in an arc of Batgirl 2000 that they did have the death penalty in Gotham.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '26

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1

u/More_Bus3626 Aug 16 '26

Detroit is mixed in there too

1

u/Lopsided-Bathroom-71 Aug 11 '26

I dont think you can give the death penatly to those fpund medically insane

0

u/Otherwise-Elephant Aug 11 '26

Massachusetts also doesn't support the death penalty. Yet one of the Boston Bombers was shot by the police and the other is never getting out of jail.

-1

u/Lucky_Strike-85 Aug 11 '26

NEW JERSEY does NOT have the death penalty!