I take it then "Justice" is the episode you were thinking of?

> did not accept absolutely reasonable and just punishment for the heinous crime

The Edo "Gods" are recognized by the Edo as being above the power of the Edo. The Edo Gods granted clemency, which was within their power and thus within the Edo legal system.

You used the word "heinous". Does the story show the Edo consider it a heinous crime? I suspect that's your personal characterization.

At the very least, the Edo youth with Crusher attempted to argue that the crime was done without understanding, which suggests they might consider other crimes (perhaps one carried out with forethought and malice) as more heinous.

(If the violation of any law which requires corporal punishment is "heinous" by definition, then the entire crew of the Enterprise in "A Taste of Armageddon" commit a heinous crime by not reporting to the disintegration chambers after the simulated attack on their ship.)

> Likely they used something threat of genocide to attain their goals.

That makes me think you are talking about another episode?

There is no threat of genocide in "Justice", or anything like that. At best the threat was to run away - something even the local authorities pointed out as an option.

Further, the Edo Gods' abilities were far superior to that of the Enterprise, eg, almost invisible to sensors, able to shut down the Enterprise transporter remotely, and able to detect the new colony in the nearby star system. There was no conceivable threat of genocide or use of force against the population.

> ýou should be fully expected to accept any punishment

That's ... just wrong. I mean, in the human system we don't "accept any punishment". We can appeal a punishment to a higher court, or to someone who is empowered to grant a pardon for some or all of that punishment. (Carter pardoned draft dodgers who hadn't even been punished.)

Picard figured out that the local legal system did recognize a higher court, as it were, and figured out a successful strategy to appeal to that authority, in a way everyone agreed was justice.

Thankfully, punishment was stayed by the supreme local authority. We don't know what would have happened had that not occurred.

> Especially when you are specially selected for such missions.

I agree. Thing is, they did prepare. Early on Yar reported "the inhabitants' laws and customs are pretty straightforward and nothing out of the ordinary" (quoting Memory Alpha). It was only later, after arrival and further research into the legal system, that they learned they themselves were subject to capital punishment for any violation of the law. Quoting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfqa596xxbc :

Yar: Careful Commander. They've got some strange laws here.

Riker: I thought you reviewed their laws.

Yar: They listed nothing about punishment.

(IMO they should have requested an emergency beam-out of the entire team at that moment, which would have saved Crusher, but given this is a fictional story, the writers would have made the crime occur just before Yar learned the legal situation they were in.)

You characterized this away team's presence on the planet as following a contract. I think it's a valid viewpoint.

How valid is a contract where the penalty clauses aren't included in the contract and aren't made aware to one of the signatories?

(Still, that doesn't explain why Yar didn't notice that punishment was missing, when it should be part of any similar contract.)

> when they do evil things

The show only establishes the Edo consider what Crusher did was a crime. We do not know enough about the Edo sense of morality to establish what they consider "evil".

In human morality, we do not regard as "evil" every person who commits a crime.

Why then do you characterize what Crusher did as an "evil thing"? Or are you speaking abstractly about some hypothetical "evil thing"?