[Magdalen] Pistorius Trial.

[Roger Stokes]

On 13/09/2014 16:31, Marion Thompson wrote:
> Here we have manslaughter.  I think this is what the South African 
> judge will be sentencing on Oct. 13.

This side of the pond the verdict has been described as equivalent to 
our offence of manslaughter.  There is no doubt that the victim died as 
a result of what he did.  Equally there is no doubt that his own life 
was not at immediate threat so self-defence cannot be argued.  Likewise 
he was not defending another person, so that cannot be argued as 
justification for his actions.  Logically that means there has been a 
homicide and he was culpable for it.

It seems to me the question then becomes what precise offence did he 
commit in South African law.

Had he hatched a plan to kill Reeva and to do so in a way that he could 
explain away?  If so then that would be premeditated murder. That is 
possible but there is little evidence to prove this beyond reasonable doubt.

Did he fir through the door with the intent of killing or causing 
grievous injury to the person in the bathroom, not necessarily knowing 
who that was?  If there were an intruder hiding there then surely a 
single shot would have served as warning to the intruder to surrender.  
I do not know South African law but the dismissal of that scenario is 
the one that troubles me.

Of course the other issue is that I assume Oscar and Reeva slept 
together so he should have been aware that she was not in bed when he 
got out of bed. Logically it would be more probable that she was in the 
bathroom than that an intruder was.

Roger