Ignorance vs. Guilt

Question:If a person does not know, is that person still guilty of grievous crime?Consider the plight of Oedipus and a modern day example.What would you do if you were on the jury at the Oedipus trial?What would you do if you were on the jury in a modern day trial?What would cause you to vote one way or another? Values? Beliefs? Evidence? Society Norms? Other information?


If a person doesn't know that law and did something wrong, yes of course they should still be guilty. If someone doesn't know the law and they have done wrong there is no excuse. In the book, Oedipus commited a crime by killing his father. He didn't know that it was his father, but he still commited a crime. It was still murder and he punished himself by leaving the country. If i was at his trial i would agree with his decision completly. If you killed someone, but you said it was by accident or something there is no excuse. Murder is murder and you cant bring that person back.
Like in todays time if i were in a trail and lets say someone shot somebody using self defense, it would still be a crime and you would still have to suffer the punishment. Even if you do say, it was an accident and it was just for self defense its not right just to start shooting and killing people, but on the other hand if someone was trying to kill you of course you would try and defend yourself. So its hard to know whats right and whats wrong but laws are laws and you need to obey them. Oedipus had no idea that that was his father and that he was sleeping with his mother, but even if he did do it unknowingly, he still commited the crime and i think what he did was the right choice by banishing himself from the country.
So whether you think one side it the right side, the laws are the laws and they still have to be followed and respected!