Pistorius trial.....

What do we all think??

Just watching the 'pistorius trial' on sky 3, I think he's innocent of murder if am being honest. A think in general South Africa is 1 ****ed up country where it's just about common practice and acceptable to carry guns.

It's no big shock that we hear about such shootings when the gun law and culture behind firearms is so relaxed, it's no different in the states either! I know our country has it's faults but I'd chose England over anywhere else in the world to live.

 

What's he guilty of then?

 

I think he is as guilty as sin and hopefully he'll get the appropriate sentence.

 

I think on the benchmark of a civilised country he should be found guilty.

Even if his story holds true if a burglar has locked himself in the toilet you have the opportunity to do lots of things other than shoot the fecker.

Call the police, make your exit to a safe place.

Etc etc etc.

and Pistorious has shown himself to be a trigger happy nut job.

But then - South Africa is not a civilised country.

I mean - even in Kendry you wouldn't expect to get murdered for your car when stopped at a set of traffic lights. I don't believe that is the case in South Africa where I know one woman who moved country because she couldn't afford to live in a gated secure community.

So on the benchmark of a country like South Africa there will be "reasonable doubt" and he will ermmmm walk free.

 

I'm with you on this. I have followed it quite closely and there was absolutely no need for him to shoot like he did and to carry on shooting despite the screams (as alleged by the prosecution at least). I believe, based on the significant evidence put forward so far, that he is guilty of murder, but he MAY get away with it because of his lawyer and/or a technicality. I think the one thing that may work against him though is that there isn't a jury, but an experienced judge - it is harder to get a unanimous guilty verdict from a jury of 12 than 1 person who is calling on the expertise of 3 other lawyers who are there to refer to if she needs to.

 

IMHO he's guilty of murder. According to Pistorius and his lawyers, he didn't think it was his girlfriend in the toilet, he thought it was an intruder. Which, I believe, makes him guilty of murder. He picked up his gun, went in to the toilet and purposely shot them to make them dead, without even knowing who it was. It could have been his mam come round for a piss for all he knew, if we believe his story. It wasn't an accident, he meant to shoot them. I can't think of a better example of murder.

But I don't believe that ********, I think he knew full well who was in there, and he picked up his gun, went in to the toilet and purposely shot his girlfriend to make her dead. So, again, murder.

Who he thought was in the toilet is actually immaterial, he shot them on purpose and that's murder.

 

Most of the local nut jobs are on crystal meths (think thats what they call it) knowing that anyone breaking in over there shoots first then asks questions in most cases might make me a tad trigger happy too. Doesnt make it right either way though .

 

Maybe I'm nieve but after I listened to how he addressed the public gantry and especially the deceased's parents the bloke sounded like he was in absolute pieces....to the point where I believe it wasn't murder on his girlfriend.

He's bang guilty of opening fire on 'someone' in his home but I truly believe at the time he believed it not to be reeva steenkamp. I heard last night how his family and himself have been plagued with violonce for years. He grew up as a child having his family home broken into on numerous occasions, his brother as been held up at gunpoint and only in 2012 he (oscar) was assaulted requiring stitches...

You put these elements together plus the fact he asn't no legs...a think I'd sleep with a gun at the side of me too but then again I'd not live in South Africa so I wouldn't feel the need to!!

Your honour........

 

bang guilty!

end of

hopethishelps clarify the situation

 

Cant get no clearer than this....

However isn't he charged with "her" murder. So its probably a technicality they are trying to get him off on. Now if he was charged with murder of shooting someone in his toilet (but victim not named) then guilty as hell....

 

That's the point, we can't look at it through the eyes of someone living in South Africa, where they live in genuine fear of violent crime. There is a practice of intruders ironing the face of victims, that's the level of **** people are worried about, they do shoot first and ask questions later. Hard to judge from the safety we live in.

 

Perfectly summed up. This is what I wanted to say but couldn't be arsed to write it in my post.

I get the South Africa is a violent country and the situation is very different over there but the points above counter any argument about the potential confrontation - he had no idea (well actually I think he did) who was in the toilet.

 

Guilty.

Why would his girlfriend lock the door if she went for a quiet slash in the middle of the night?

Can't remember the last time the door was closed at my place!

 

Go on, I'll state the obvious - in my opinion, he hasn't got a leg to stand on.

 

The evidence, for me, overwhelmingly suggests he is guilty.

But, he'll get off with it. I was reading the other day that a lot of very influential people would lose quite a bit of their money if he is convicted.

But yeah, why would she lock the door? How could he not tell whether she was in bed or not? Come on, its basic instincts.

 

He is a about as innocent as OJ Simpson and he got off!!!

hopethishelps

 

First of all I think he knew it was her in the loo and he intended to shoot her (maybe not kill her, but definately recklessly discharged his firearm.). And as such from what I've heard and seen - whilst he clearly regrets it now, at the time he meant it.

However, there are many many examples of where a person deliberately shoots someone and it is not murder.

It's killing. But that is not murder.

It's all down to the situation, and the law in South Africa is different to ours.

However I think he'll get off. I think his defense team will demonstrate to the judge that he had good reason to believe it was an intruder and in South Africa I believe reasonable force against intruders includes randomly shooting through the locked toilet door to "remove the threat"

However, not that it matters, but I think her family will be the litmus test for whether or not justice has been done. For me - their reaction will tell more than the actual verdict.


As an aside when reading the comments on here - would anyone really want to be subjected to a jury trial. 12 BBS contributors selected at random to decide your fate.......that's more scary than a crack head in the toilet I think.

 

Our lass has considered shooting me a couple of times, just to get me off the toilet!

 

Funny how people can view the same thing very differently. I'm not sure myself what he is guilty of. The fact of shooting her doesn't mean he is guilty of murder as some on here have suggested. To counter the two things you state: I think it is quite conceivable that she would have locked the toilet door. I've know people who always do that in their own home cos they've grown up doing it (large families, people bursting in on you having a crap etc) and as for not telling that she was in bed? I did something similar ( no killing!) when I'd got up in the night and gone to the bog - came back into the room and heard a noise downstairs. Whispered to my girlfriend to be quiet and that I was going down down to investigate. We both nearly died of fright when I confronted her getting a drink from the fridge - it can happen.
He was quite obviously very sensitised to the possibly of violent intruders and I think fear can really mess your mind up.

Still not sure that he isn't guilty though. Why did she not shout back from inside the toilet when he shouted? Slam dunk defence if she was wearing earphones??

He might get off cos of police incompetence anyway. Hope not.