Pistorius Out On Parole After Less Than a Year Behind Bars...

[Yeekim]

The deterrence argument is weaker for 'crimes' where people honestly believe that what they are doing is legal.

Won't argue that...

 

[Samson]

The situation was so specific (and unpremeditated) that nobody (least of all Pistorius) is going to find themself in that situation again. Admittedly, it might deter somebody plotting to murder his wife, who independently thought up exactly that plan to get away with it, who will now be trying to find another cunning idea. However, it doesn't compare with (eg.) drunk driving, where many people regularly find themselves in a position where they have to apply willpower not to do it. How many people are going to find themselves suspecting that a burglar is in their bathroom and contemplating whether to shoot at the door?

There are those who think this is important as a deterrent, from the beeb:

But Ms Steenkamp's mother, June, was present and afterwards she was seen outside the court being embraced by members of the African National Congress Women's League, who were singing songs of celebration.

Our correspondent says that many in South Africa were upset by the original acquittal on murder charges, with women's rights groups arguing he should have been found guilty of murder as a deterrent because of the high number of women who are killed by their partners in the country.

 

[Flying Pig]

I think that's a dangerous line to go down. Barack Obama has recently given out a fair few pardons to people imprisoned during a hysterical period a few decades ago, who would certainly have been released long ago with today's sentencing practices. I'm uncomfortable with the idea that the verdict should depend on anything outside the case itself. There may be a general social good argument, but we accept in the law usually that it's better to err a thousand times on the side of sparing the guilty than to err once and punish the innocent. That has to be as true when deciding between two levels of guilt as between guilt and no-guilt - he doesn't become less of a person for being a criminal.

 

[Silurian]

he should have been found guilty of murder as a deterrent

He should have been found guilty of murder because he was guilty not as as a deterrent.
The sentence is the deterrent after he has been found guilty.

 

[Zkribbler]

I didn't follow the case, but wasn't Pistorius's argument that he had no intent to kill when he fired through the door? As I understand the Court of Appeal's reasoning, the Court is saying that the way the bullets were fired through the door, the intention must have been to kill.

 

[brennan]

"As a matter of common sense at the time the fatal shots were fired, the possibility of the death of the person behind the door was clearly an obvious result," the judge said.

"And in firing not one but four shots, such a result became even more likely."

I'm not going to say I told you so, but...