[Magdalen] Pistorius Trial.

[ME Michaud]

Loads of South Africans hereabout, notably Margaret Marshall, former
Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, whose decision
in Goodridge is read at many weddings today.

There seems to be a Harard/EDS-to-South Africa-and-back connection
that renders the accent very familiar to us here.

Does South African law acknowledge the difference between intent and
pre-meditstion? People here do sometimes, judges here do ... usually.

I have seen little of this on the news here, but was struck by how childish
his behavior was. We'd have called it  "bratty remorse."
-M

On Saturday, September 13, 2014, Sally Davies <sally.davies at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The problem is he was found not guilty of murder "dolus eventualis"; only
> on culpable homicide. That carries no minimum sentence, though Judge Masipa
> does have the option of a heavy-ish jail sentence.  He knew what bullets he
> had in the gun and in previous cases self defence hasn't been accepted as
> an excuse when using Black Talon ammo that literally explode when they hit
> flesh, hence Reeva's terrible wounds. So why cut Oscar slack when he used
> them knowing what they do i.e. "zombie stopping"??
>
> I disagree with her on the facts as well - firstly that "relationships are
> unpredictable"- the work of Gottman and others says they are in fact highly
> predictable, just as human behaviour can be predictable in general, though
> not 100%. Also, that the accused's remorseful behaviour after the shooting
> indicates that he did not intend to
>