The Pistorius problem

Pretty standard sentence for culpable homicide: Mapipa vs The State. Mapipa vs The State, The State vs Nesane.

So did MMBENGWA ALFRED NESANE, 8 years. Standard sentence.Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.

And my comment was meant indicate that any leniency was not the judge's, who acted in accordance with standard sentencing guidelines as far as I can tell. You might want to argue that South African legal system is too lenient. If he had sentenced for 8 years or more, an appeal is likely to succeed, which would be a waste of everyone's time and money. Well, hardly a trivial question. I think its reasonable. Higher sentences than that really should be reserved for people whose negligence has resulted in convictions previously, who try and hide evidence, the body (higher sentencing for dismembering the corpse), flee the scene, blame others, kill or injure multiple people, with full sight of the victim and so on while keeping the sentencing less than murder.

I was talking about the sentencing for the crimes he was found guilty of.If you think someone should be sentenced based on crimes they weren't found guilty of that's a problem. If it cannot be proved you committed a crime, you are not guilty. That's a pretty good system, I feel. You want to try and argue otherwise?Otherwise, your problem is not with the sentencing but with the conviction.Incidentally - would it have been as serious a crime if the victim was an ugly young man? Even so, I'm sure you'd agree that not sentencing someone who was not convicted is the way to go, right?Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.

Not bad, and I doubt they would have appealed, but there might have been grounds to. In the State vs Nesane, the perpetrator gained entry to the victim's house - his former partner who had intimated he was an abusive husband - and confronted her about her social crimes. The situation escalated to violence at which point Nesane picked up a gun, during the events that followed his wife was shot. He had clear sight of her and had intended to have an angry confrontation. He was sentenced to 45 years for murder, but on appeal it was reduced to 8 years for culpable homicide.I think that there were probably more mitigating factors and less aggravating factors in Pistorius' case than Nesane's. True, but then there's Mike Tyson. A sport's cheat who won maybe $300million and was convicted of rape and served 3 years of 6. He lost most of it, but to call him financially broken is probably not quite accurate. Of course, many thought him innocent, so maybe that helped post-prison. Pistorius has a reasonable chance of doing OK for himself after his sentence, I think - much more than OJ did.

I'll take that as confirmation that your issue is with the conviction, not with the sentencing that followed.