It may be delivered by a terse and merciful judge (5,8)

I believe the answer is:

short sentence

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'it may be delivered' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.

'a terse and merciful judge' is the wordplay.
'a terse' becomes 'short' (I've seen this in another clue).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'merciful judge' becomes 'sentence' (I've seen this before. I am not sure about the 'merciful' bit.).
'short'+'sentence'='SHORT SENTENCE'

'by' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail and The Irish News.

Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app