[Magdalen] Pistorius Trial.

[Marion Thompson]

Logic lacks heart.  Frankly, in the considerable heat of the moment and 
being  conditioned by life at some level of society in S.A., I really 
don't know what any of us would do.  So easy to judge objectively away 
from that whole circumstance.

Marion, a pilgrim   ... today my sail I lift ....

On 9/13/2014 6:18 PM, Roger Stokes wrote:
> 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
>