Oscar Pistorius - Blade Gunner

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Innocent or guilty?

Right now on day 1 I believe innocent. Though even if guilty he will get off on a technicality

I don't know, and until the judge hands out a verdict none of us will know.

Did you think of that title yourself?

Apartment neighbour claims to have heard a woman's blood curdling scream prior to the shots ringing out. Pistorius's defense counsel claims it was actually him (Pistorius) screaming as he "sounds like a woman". Under cross examination the witness thought it was not possible for it to have been a male screaming. Anyone with half a brain would know the chances that somebody who enjoys using a gun (see below) and obviously comfortable with using a weapon
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news ... ed-3193993

Is highly unlikely to scream like a woman and spray his bathroom with bullets thinking there was a burglar. In any case he would have to be daft not to check first or at least call to check/confirm it was his now deceased G/F. Pistorius is a gun nut and obviously had no compunction in blasting his G/F to oblivion because he felt insecure she was interested in other men.

Regardless if we think he is guilty as sin or a poor little innocent, I think we should leave it up to the court in south africa to deal with.

I do not know the law in south africa, but it may be best if the arm chair lawyers, even Mr Justice Woodpecker leave the matter to the court. We shouldnot have trial by media, or by public opinion or by wrong planet lynch mob.

The evidence suggests a 99.9% chance he'll be convicted. Only concession he may get is there were no witnesses there may be some lingering doubt over motive. His lawyer will eventually plead it was ultimately a spur of the moment crime of passion rather than a pre-planned murder. Probably the only way he'll get his sentence reduced.

May also explain why he is now dating a 19 yr old, means by the times he's released from prison she'll be around the same age as Reeva...

I've been sick at home and have been watching the trial since monday. The question I have is why would Oscar be calling for help before he fired the shots if he was the one who threatened Reeva and chased her into the bathroom as stated in the states case? I'm wondering this because both Michelle Burger (the first witness) and her husband testified that they heard both a woman calling for help and a man calling for help before they heard the shots being fired. That doesn't seem to fit with a domestic violence incident to me, nor does it seem to fit with the prosecution's version of events. In fact, even these two witnesses said that they initially thought that it was a house break-in and were actually surprised to find out later that Oscar Pistorius had shot his girlfriend because a domestic violence incident seemed inconsistent with what they had heard.

I don't know yet whether I think he's innocent or guilty. I need to see the rest of the case

Last edited by Jono on 05 Mar 2014, 7:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

No his lawyer will argue that it was an accident. They have to the version of events that he gave at his bail hearing. Also, we don't know yet how his defence will address the evidence provided by the prosecution. He will definitely at the very least have some kind of criminal record at the end of this but what might happen is that the murder charge could be reduced to culpable homicide (manslaughter in the US).

I dont know. I suppose if you live in south africa you would always be paranoid and edgy. The story does sound a little fishy though.

My view of the matter is that during the bail hearings Oscar made what is a confession to having fired the bullets, this will limit the options which his lawyer can use in the full trial.

For example Oscar can not claim that an intruder fired the bullets after stealing his gun, it will be better if we leave the judge to decide if it was a horrible accident or a murder.

Firing through a door or wall at a perceived threat is a major no-no almost anywhere in the world, and no matter how convincing Pistorius is about how frightened he was and how much corroborating evidence for his story, it's those shots through the door that will bite him in the ass. He might duck the murder charges, but there's some kind of manslaughter or negligent homicide statute that will apply to blind firing on an unknown target.

Incidentally, shooting through walls and doors at unknown targets is is Vice President Joe Biden's suggested method of self defense, though he prefers a double barrel 12 gauge to a 9mm pistol from what I hear.

That's what I said in my last post. The equivalent charge of "negligent homicide" or "manslaughter" in South Africa is called culpable homicide. No South African court is going to see anyone shooting through a closed door as "just an accident", the gun laws here (regarding when to pull the trigger) are even more restrictive than in the US.

Either way, I think the prosecution are a bit of a shambles, as also shown in the bail hearing, and the defense will end up catching them out so many times that he won't get convicted.