Oscar Pistorius Gets Five Years
Oscar Pistorius received his sentence today, and it was a slap on the wrist if you ask me. I believe Oscar Pistorius killed Reeva in an emotional outburst.
The judge in the case said, “I am of the view that a non-custodial sentence would send a wrong message to the community. On the other hand, a long sentence would not be appropriate either, as it would lack the element of mercy.”
Who on earth believes Pistorius should get mercy? I find this shocking, but not as shocking and as arrogant as what the judge said next.
Judge Thokozile Masipa said, “Society cannot always get what they want. Courts do not exist for a popularity contest but only to dispense justice … The general public may not even know the difference between punishment and vengeance.”
That statement shocked me as extremely arrogant–that the people are likely clueless to determine such.
Ironically, I believe that Pistorius actually killed Reeva in vengeance, and this judge doesn’t see it sadly, or doesn’t want to, perhaps.
According to this news reports, it is believed that Pistorius may only serve 10-20 months in prison, and then will be allowed to serve the remainder of time in house arrest.
Unbelievably sad and quite privileged.
I fear for the next woman who dates this man as he is unable to control his emotions.
Taking her life meant nothing to him. I am confused that it seems to mean so little to the judge. I wonder what Nelson Mandela would think of all this?
Isn’t mercy a good thing? What makes us civilised. Have to admit I agree with the judge that public opinion is frequently clueless.
Yes, mercy is absolutely a good thing. But what has Oscar done that shows he deserves it?
Well surely everyone deserves it. I don’t think mercy is something that you earn.
All is relative. So if 50% mercy + 50% punishment is what criminals usually get why would he get 80% mercy and only 20% punishment?
I think it’s a travesty of Mercy. Mercy is something given to the unfortunate or someone that admits their wrongdoing.
David you might be confusing Mercy – crim. law. : the total or partial remission of a punishment to which a convict is subject – with the religious idea of mercy which is all encompassing and without reason.
The judge said “The accused was very emotional,” Masipa said during a lengthy meditation on Pistorius’s guilt. “He suffers from trauma, even 18 months after the incident.” And psychologists thought his emotion was real. You were right earlier Eyes, the judge was lenient towards Pistorius. She might have fallen for his story.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_(disambiguation) – there doesn’t seem to be a special legal definition, so I think the judge was using the word with its normal connotations. I also don’t see any mention of conditions.
Are you seriously saying, for example, that if I speed in my car I deserve mercy? And not only me but everyone that breaks the law deserves mercy no matter what the crime or intention or reason or result of the crime?
But is the public clueless here? The majority opinion is more of hearing him say “open the door Reeva!” And then shooting thru it when she didn’t. That’s warrants no mercy. His version of the event is very hard to believe & his trauma also hard to swallow compared to hers.
He didn’t say that. What are you talking about?
It’s the majority opinion of the public that it probably happened more along those lines than of his version of the events. U said u agreed with the judge the public opinion is clueless, I don’t believe they are n this case. Oscar, thru his own actions, showed the public what he is.
But you can’t just make up a scene! If that’s what the public are doing, that’s why they aren’t judges.
Make up the scene? If u shot ur way thru a locked door u knew someone was behind, beat ur way thru it w/a bat, the neighbors hearing it call security & when security calls u to ask if everyone’s alright u LIE!? How is that making up the scene? I’m not making a big leap, although Oscar did trying for sympathy. I don’t buy his version. When somebody’s yelling thru a locked door n then shoots you thru it im pretty sure they said open it up. It was his door after all. I’m also wondering how much adrenal he had going when beating thru the door w/a bat & if it was out of concern for her or if he was still in a rage?
But u are very right that I could never be a judge David. I would see the facts of the crime, the victim, the accused… but it’s the families left on both sides that would prevent me from doing the job 🙁 thanks for your side of subject!
I agree with you Remi.
And I’m beginning to see why Eyes considers the judge’s statement arrogant. Who would think of a murder trial as a popularity contest?! That statement is insulting. And why would I, a member of the general public and someone who never met Reeva, confuse punishment with vengeance?!
The situation is more like this: If she had been my sister, that guy killed her with a gun by shooting her more than once and got away with a light sentence, where’s the justice in that? Even if he had killed her by accident that sentence seems light (not that I believe his story).
I actually think the law makes us civilised. More so than mercy.
Let me show you my highly civilised robots.
The only positive from this trial: I learned that juries are not that bad after all. At least when they blow it I can keep telling myself “that’s because they’re 12 dopes who couldn’t get out of jury duty”. When a highly respected judge blows a case this badly, it leaves me completely befuddled.
Well at least you didn’t call her a Moron is is.
The judge seems to have seen the decision as a delicate balance rather than making a judgement for justice.
I agree, and it’s very upsetting. While it’s always possible, I don’t think a judge in The States would ever talk about what “the public” wants while rendering a verdict. It has no place, and for it to be mentioned gives a glimpse of where the judge’s head was/is. 🙁
Bear in mind USA has juries to sample public opinion. It’s probably the responsible thing for SA judges to mention public opinion.
The USA does not have juries to sample public opinion. I don’t agree.
I mean, that is precisely one of its purposes, “a jury of your peers”.
The opinion of the public and carefully selected jurors weighing the facts of a case and discussing it among each other resulting in a verdict, aren’t even close.
Right, and South Africa doesn’t have juries, so the judge mentioned public opinion.
I found this case so interesting. I feel so sad for Reeva to have experienced that. 🙁
When I first heard about this, I immediately looked to see what time her death was. Mainly because I used to suffer from a cortisol disorder that made me very anxious and it would be worse between 1 am and 4 am. I would wake up in a panic in the night very worried and anxious and go around and check my doors and windows and I rarely could go back to sleep. Every worse case scenario suddenly became very real to me. It took almost two years to figure out that it was adrenal exhaustion and an underlying thyroid issue and when I was treated, I got better. I remember one night we moved our bed from part of the room to the other and I woke up at 3 AM very disoriented and confused and very anxious. I looked over and saw a shadow of a door (where there’s normally a white blank wall) and thought it was a person standing in my room. Just that little bit of a move really disoriented me and I jolted out of bed in a panic. Throughout the trial, I sort of wondered if Oscar was suffering something similar from the bits of Info shared about his paranoia.
I once had a friend who had adrenal exhaustion. He was a Vietnam vet. One night he woke up and started strangling his wife. She said he was always worse between 1 and 4 am and started sleeping in another room because he would wake up and frantically reach for his gun. He was normal and fine the rest of the time. No medication helped and some even made it worse. It makes sense because that is the time when your cortisol Is already naturally high. A person with a lot of anxiety, generally has it worse and may even suffer from insomnia at times. It can quite literally push you into fight or flight mode and make you feel crazy.
I’m not by any means making excuses for but I do wonder if there was some other underlying health or mental issues going on that we are unaware of. I would have 100% believed he killed her in a fight if was before midnight. But 3 am is such an odd time to be having a fight, not impossible of course. I also don’t see any fear from her in any of the their photos or videos together. I hope we find out more answers someday. She was a beautiful person.