[51]
Read the
statute that comes next.“LawNo man shall be liable to proceedings for murder because he
lays information against exiles, if any such exile return to a prohibited
place.”This statute, men of Athens, like all the other excerpts from
the law of homicide which I have cited for comparison, is a statute of Draco;
and you must pay attention to his meaning. “No man is to be liable to
prosecution for murder for laying information against manslayers who return from
exile illegally.” Herein he exhibits two principles of justice, both
of which have been transgressed by the defendant in his decree. In the first
place, though he allows information to be laid against the homicide, he does not
allow him to be seized and carried off; and secondly, he allows it only if an
exile returns, not to any place, but to a prohibited place.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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