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Odysseus's Trial

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As an attorney for the side of the prosecution, I believe the jury’s verdict to find Odysseus guilty of first-degree murder was in good taste. The evidence and arguments of the prosecution proved to be irrefutable. Contrastingly, the arguments from the defense were cracked, founded upon technicalities, and did not justify letting a killer walk free. Both sides presented their case, but the strength of both was not equal. In the end, the lack of solid reasoning from the defense and the strong delivery of the prosecution led to the guilty verdict. The main arguments of the prosecution were that Odysseus killed for his pride, he willingly followed through on his actions, pre-planned the massacre, and had ill will towards those that he murdered. …show more content…

The prosecution’s main arguments against them were that while these characters influenced him, none of them actually forced Odysseus’ hand. When Odysseus was cross-examined by the prosecution, they were able to paint him in a dreadful light. They first confirmed that Odysseus slept with Calypso and Circe, but killed Melantho and Eurymachus for sleeping with each other. Odysseus was married and the latter pair was not. Another mistake in the defense’s logic was that they tried to argue that Odysseus was treated badly under the guise of a beggar. The prosecution tore this aspect to shreds. Firstly, while it was not right of the suitors to treat him that way, they had no way of knowing the beggar was actually the master of the house; Odysseus tricked them. Then, there was the question of why Odysseus had to pretend. The reason for it was because he had already planned to murder all to suitors and didn’t want to tip them off and have time to prepare. Then came the defense’s last-ditch attempt at letting Odysseus walk free. They argued that the book stated Odysseus only killed five people explicitly. This was detrimental to the case; they shouldn’t have mentioned it at all, because it opened a door for the prosecution to argue that five people is still a lot and that he planned to slay all of

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