[59]
And this just principle is so binding
among all men, that if anyone having convicted another of involuntary homicide,
and clearly shown him to be polluted,1
subsequently takes pity on him and releases him, he has no longer the right to
have the same person driven into exile. Again, if the victim himself before his
death releases the murderer from bloodguiltiness, it is not lawful for any of
the remaining kinsmen to prosecute; but those whom the laws sentence to
banishment and exile and death, upon conviction, if they are once released, are
by that word freed from all evil consequences.
1 Homicide, even if accidental, entailed pollution, which required expiation.
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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