Is it ever appropriate to 'forgive the essence of evil'?

I was reading news on the internet, and somehow came upon the case of the home invasion that happened in Connecticut four years ago. I had just moved back to the United States at the time and so was peripherally aware that it had happened - the people it happened to lived parallel suburban-style lives to most of my friends and family and there was a lot of discussion at the time as to how horrifying it was that you could go to the grocery store with your kids to get something to make for dinner and be followed home and lose your entire family, home, etc...

But it struck me that I never knew what had become of the one remaining survivor - the father- a man who had fallen asleep in a chair on his porch, been beaten unconscious and tied to a pole in his basement, and regained consciousness in the hospital to find that his wife had been raped and strangled and his two daughters had been tied to their beds awake and alive, had gasoline poured over their bodies and the house set on fire.

So I was reading more about him and I came upon this - something he'd said in an interview:

Three years after his wife and two daughters were murdered in a brutal home invasion, Petit, the only survivor of the attacks, said forgiving the "essence of evil" would be wrong.


"I don't think you can forgive ultimate evil. You can forgive somebody who stole your car. You can forgive somebody who slapped you in the face. You can forgive somebody who caused an accident. I think forgiving the essence of evil is not appropriate,"

And I surprised myself by realizing that I agreed.
I think.
I'm trying to work out what the downside of NOT forgiving evil acts is and if there is an undiluted upside.
I'm going to present this as a discussion topic in my literacy class that I teach at the prison, because I think it'll generate some very interesting feedback from men who have participated in perpetrating harm against others, many of whom have had harm perpetrated against them...how does it all link up and play out?

One of the facts that leapt out at me about this case as I've read about it is that the man who sexually abused the eleven year old daughter before tying her to her bed and setting her alight, was raped himself as a child.
And he alledgedly said to his cohort who had driven the mother/wife to the bank and forced her to withdraw $15,000 to feed their drug habits, 'Go ahead and rape her - I raped the girl - we have to even it up'.
And the thought struck me, 'Has his whole life been a quest to even things up - by inflicting harm on others as he'd had it inflicted on him?'

It's even made me question my stance on the death penalty - which I thought was pretty firmly entrenched and had been for years.

I'm just interested in any thoughts anyone has.
If this is not the essence of evil enacted through human behavior one to another, what is?
And is it ever appropriate to forgive the essence of evil?

URL: http://able2know.org/post/discuss/