Royal Gooner wrote:UFGN wrote:Royal Gooner wrote:UFGN wrote:Royal Gooner wrote:UFGN wrote:Pistorius gets all the breaks during sentencing....
Mitigating circumstances including his regret and remorse (incompatible with being found guilty of murder because by definition he has been lying for three years)
More credit for his vulnerability and basically the fact he's going to have a shit time in jail
Let's pretend for a minute that Oscar's phantom burglar had actually broken into his house and blown away a rich white woman. How much leniency do you reckon he'd have got? "Oh, I'm very sorry, I'm desperately poor, my dad got murdered when I was a kid, I ended up on drugs and that's how it all happened..... 30 years for that guy you can guarantee it.
I hardly think you can play that scenario out when the judge is black. Why do you think prosecutors tried to get him executed with that Murder with intent charge?
Because it's their job.
No, their job is to get a realistic conviction that sees justice done. What they charged him with, they had nowhere near the amount of evidence required for it. It's because they made such hash of it that Pistorious gets "the breaks", of which there were several reasonable mitigating factors.
I reckon you know about the same amount I do regarding South African laws and sentencing guidelines. Eg f**k all.
But I know a rich white boy getting soft sentence when I see one.
With a black judge and no jury in a country that is predominantly black and mostly on low incomes where there is no doubt a lingering distrust of white people owing to the legacy of apartheid? Any reason why they'd give "a rich white boy" a "soft sentence"? I can't think of a reason why there'd be an incentive to do that.
Wealth and power, can you imagine a poor black guy or a poor white guy getting the same treatment/sentence, I think not.