@andyryn
Oscar Pistorius and the Tale of Three cases.
(Dee 2014)


There have been three cases that come to mind when I think about Oscar Pistorius.
Firstly the case of Visagie, who mistakenly and tragically shot and killed his only daughter in the mistaken belief she was a car thief. There was no question that his life was in danger and no question that his intention was to harm his daughter. Charges were later dropped. However if a car is being driven away from a house at a normal speed, then the option is to shoot the tyres rather than assumably shooting into the car where the likelihood is that the driver could be seriously injured or killed. The NPA never attempted to have the case reopened and in many respects ignored that a person was killed, probably taking the same approach as many felt that he would have to live with the tragic consequences of his actions. What however would have been the result if it was a car thief who was killed. Would the State then have taken the view that shooting even one shot into a confined space was likely to cause the death of the driver. Would the principle of Dolus Eventualis be debated, the type of ammunition used, God forbid he used Black Talon ammunition or would it have been argued in his defence that this was the preferred ammunition used by law enforcement in US and for the purposes of self defence.

Another case is that of a man who mistook his pregnant wife for an intruder and shot her. The husband was convicted of CH and given a suspended sentence. Again the legal principle of Dolus Eventualis featured nowhere in the case. Yet shooting a person at point blank range without ascertaining who they are, can and was in this case as likely to result in death as shooting through a door four times. It was never determined what his intentions were regarding the perceived intruder. There was nothing to suggest the NPA thralled through 1700 text messages etc from the couple to find any trace of disharmony in their relationship or identified-examined the contents of the wife's stomach to determine that the couple could have eaten late and argued. Were neighbours 177m away interviewed to determine whether they heard raised voices in any language not necessarily identifiable or in a location unable to be determined. There was no suggestion that this was VAW yet statistically women are more likely to suffer domestic abuse during pregnancy.

In another case a home owner shot and killed a man on his roof believed to be attempting to burglar his home. I can't help but facetiously think a certain person should take added care travelling over SA on December 24th. The man shot in the direction of the deceased killing him. Again the charge was CH and a sentence of 7 years suspended for 5 years was given. Interestingly Oscar was given a 3 year sentence suspended for 5 years for the accidental single discharge of a fire arm in a restaurant. The NPA are not appealing the case, there was no discussion about Dolus Eventualis and no debate that shooting in the direction of a person equates with an intent to injure or kill. In fact the Judge in their summation said that
'killing the victim didn't mean he did the right thing but it could happen to anyone'

It should also be noted that in none of the above cases was the person disabled in any way, let alone had no legs and not in a position to defend themselves. In fact in all the cases the person who shot was in no perceived or real immediate danger.

Although each case needs to be considered on their own merits what seems evident is that CH, the verdict that was given in Oscars case is the usual verdict. It then needs to be questioned why the NPA are not accepting the verdict in his case.
Why do they feel that a sentence of 5 years is shockingly light when the previous cases resulted in no prison time. The state also wish a sentence of 15 years imprison for having his fathers ammunition in his safe but failed to provide any testimony, witness statements or evidence regarding this charge.

It therefore is my opinion that Oscar Pistorius appears to be singled out for reasons that the NPA are not sharing despite the previous leaking of numerous pictures, details of the case in their possession to the media.

The NPA have failed to produce any details of cases where an application for leave to appeal was made considering the legal principle of Dolus Eventualis or why they have not previously considered overturning a 32 year legal decision which may prevent them appealing this case.

What will be interesting to see is what happens their application, if it is successful then it would suggest a two tier system of Justice, one for ordinary people and another for famous disabled athletes which the NPA seem to think should be used as a legal guinea pig firstly with the televising of the case against his will and secondly to overturn a legal precedent to ensure his case can be appealed to obtain a harsher sentence despite other cases clearly been considered CH and suspended sentences given.

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