Justice for Oscar Pistorius
Oscar Pistorius became more famous after he murdered his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, than he ever was as a track star. It’s like how O.J. Simpson became more famous after he murdered his wife, Nicole Brown, than he ever was as a football player.
The fateful symmetry began with Pistorius’s trial. Just like O.J.’s trial in America, the media in South Africa reported on it as the trial of the century. Except that O.J. was acquitted; Pistorius wasn’t. But his conviction and sentence incited similar outrage.
Sentence: a miscarriage of justice
The trial judge, Thokozile Masipa, reduced the murder charge against Pistorius to manslaughter. Then, after finding him guilty of that lesser charge, she sentenced him to only five years. I objected on both counts.
Unsurprisingly, the prosecutor appealed, and the appellate court duly “scaled up” his conviction to murder. I concurred and hailed that ruling in “Oscar Pistorius Guilty of Murder…Duh,” December 7, 2015.
Such a judicial slap on the wrist would have chastened and guided any sensible judge. So, I expected Masipa to scale up her sentence commensurate with murder. She didn’t. Instead, she willfully added just one year to her original sentence.
Unsurprisingly, this sentence incited the prosecutor to appeal yet again. That led, all too predictably, to the following development:
South Africa’s Supreme Court more than doubled Oscar Pistorius’ murder sentence on Friday [to 13 years] after the state argued the original jail term of six years for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was ‘shockingly lenient.’
Steenkamp’s family…said it showed justice could prevail in South Africa.
(Reuters, November 24, 2017)
In truth, this Supreme Court ruling is as much a slap in the face for Judge Masipa as it is a punch in the gut for Pistorius. And both are equally warranted.
Justice delayed but not denied
For O.J., justice delayed but not denied was getting a 33-year sentence for petty theft in Las Vegas. The judge in that case clearly intended that sentence to compensate for the double murders he committed in Los Angeles.
For Pistorius, it is having his sentence more than doubled. And the Supreme Court clearly intends this sentence to compensate for the relative slap on the wrist Masipa gave him.
Granted, justice, in this case, is not quite as poetic. But it has the same whiff of comeuppance for a celebrated man who seemed to have gotten away with murder.
Steenkamp’s parents, Barry and June, were ’emotional’ as they watched Seriti deliver the verdict live on television at their home, family lawyer Tania Koen said. ‘They feel there has been justice for Reeva. She can now rest in peace.’
(Associated Press, November 24, 2017)
Pistorius should rot in jail. However, under South African law, he will probably be paroled after serving only half his sentence.