My honorable judge and dear gentlemen of jury,
It’s of gratitude that I was elected by my client, Oedipus, as his defense lawyer to stand here, in front of you, and use the proof to support my opinion to pull him out of a case, which can directly contribute to deadly judgments on him, or at least to avoid a worse situation to occur.
As far as I know, Oedipus, my client, was accused of intentional murder and incest which is considered to break the law of marriage. In accordance with these charge, he should have been punished with death. But before my dear wise judge and jury make your final decision, I want to state my evidence for you.
Firstly, I must emphasize that Laius’ death caused by Oedipus cannot be described as intentional murder. My reasons are as follow:
First of all, according to the truth, it’s not until Laius’ servant killed Oedipus’ horse and still insulted Oedipus, which made Oedipus supposed his life was in danger of death, that Oedipus took such an irrational action. Thus, Oedipus’ behavior can be treated as protect of himself to some extent. On the other hand, my client’s original aim was not to kill Laius to death but to threaten Laius not to do something unwise. It is just like the snakes. When they feel in threat, they will stand straight up to terrify people not to hurt them.
Secondly, as for the incest, I think that kind of behavior cannot be punished but be blame because Oedipus’ marriage with Jocasta has not be censured by law. Thus, their relationship only can be depicted as cohabitation, which don’t break the law but break the common faith. Besides, Oedipus knew nothing about the fact that his mother is Jocasta. Innocent is not guilty. What’s more, we also have to take account of the situation Oedipus was in. As far as I know, what directly led to this unacceptable marriage is election, which pushed Oedipus to the status of a king, made by people in Thebes. I’m not very sure whether there is a custom in Thebes that the new king must marry the former queen.
At last, I wish you could think about Oedipus’ good action in the past----he left his favorite hometown in order to avoid a tragedy; he rescued the people in Thebes from suffering; and also he was always a good king except for his unreasonable behavior in the crossroad.
Taking all of these into consideration and thinking twice, I believe people as wise as you are do will make a proper and justice judgment.
Thanks!
