Did Gollum deserve death?

[Raynor]

It showed he had morality.

So, he has morality only when he has to resort to this defence; the only problem is he has to resort to it constantly, even when talking to Gandalf. His moral equilbrium is still highly important for him, and to appease his remorse he resists a lot of Gandalf's pressure. First and foremost he hides the truth from himself, because it still hurts him to acknowledge he is evil.

how the compiler (Tolkien, Findegil or whoever) knows what was going through Gollum's mind at that point is beyond me.

such a problem that you mention does not exist, in a world where knowledge outside current time and space is still acessible to istari, Men and Elves - esspecially since with the palantir, Gandalf could have looked as back as Feanor creating. I am sorry, but this is a laughable defense, in utter disregard of the story, its elements, and its logic. Even in the text, after the hobbits awake, his voice is at first soft, and then he hisses when he is further pushed, and a green glint flickers in his eyes; Tolkien commented several times about the lack of sophistication of Sam, and how he so missed seeing the change in Gollum.