Understood Vera.  I would posit that mercy, compassion, and intervention are actions taken following a particular judgement. 
In the case of your alcoholic, we can rightly judge his behavior as wrong, while at the same time helping him toward sobriety.  Understand that neither mania, depression nor a genetic predisposition toward alcohol or drug abuse is an excuse for such behavior.  We are all predisposed toward sin of some kind, but the person who masters his or her passions and utilizes intellect instead of giving in to temptation, by practicing moral virtue, is the person who will conquer.
We have to be very careful in our discernments.  Take your alcoholic.  Was our empathy misguided?  Did he climb behind the wheel and kill people in a drunken stupor?  In such a case, the "rash judgment" was made by the magistrate who thought mercy was better than punishment.