The Unjust Laws in the Metamorphoses by Ovid and the Death Penalty

“Unjust laws exist”

Laws were created by people with a motive in keeping structure and class within a society for the benefit of others; nonetheless many laws are unjust and wrong. They were established by people who felt that citizens would gain a profit from the laws created, however laws such as the death penalty and laws found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses are not justified.

The death penalty is a debatable topic in countries and although many countries have banned it, others have not. The death penalty was created to punish people who have done terrible deeds. Osama Bin Laden was put on death penalty after his many attempts and attacks on United States soil. He was a very big criminal and therefore I am not against his sentence. The death penalty is also placed upon many innocent people and that creates the fine line between integrity and discrimination. The Troy Davis case was a 22 year long case involving a young man, Davis, and the death of a police officer. Davis was accused of killing the police officer, although “the gun that killed the officer was never found” according to New York Time article published on September 21, 2011. The young man was imprisoned for twenty two years and dealt with 11 court verdicts according to a CBN news article published on September 22, 2011. Davis pleaded guilty at every verdict and told investigators to look further into the case because he sure he was innocent. Troy’s lawyer requested a lie detector test which was denied and shortly after, he was put to death by lethal injection. This man was imprisoned for twenty years, pleaded and begged for his innocence and with no luck put on this death row. There were no solid evidence against the killing, yet the Davis was killed. Why was he denied of a lie detector test if investigators were sure that he was the killer? The death penalty should be used when necessary and can be a possible just law if used wisely; however if used foolishly innocent people could lose their lives.

There are also many unjust laws evident in literature such as Ovid’s Metamorphose one being Jove’s punishment to all of mankind when Lycaon is turned into a wolf and starts eating human flesh. Jove judged the character of one being to everyone else and killed off all of mankind leaving only two survivors. This was a reprehensible move that he made after taking the actions of a single being into account; he was able to end most of the human race. By judging the character of all humans, he committed an unlawful deed.

Unjust laws do exist and while many may support them, because they certainly were made for the public good, others are totally against them. They were made to keep a society balanced and there is a plan behind every law created; however not all laws are justified and many create chaos.