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Pistorius Trial: South African v Scottish Sentencing

On Tuesday 21st October 2014 Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in jail for manslaughter by Judge Thokozile Masipa in Pretoria’s High Court. The duration of this sentence and its putative effect has seen much discussion in the media.

As with most other common law jurisdictions, South African courts have considerable discretion at the sentencing stage of criminal process. At present, South Africa does not have any codified sentencing purposes or principles or sentencing guidelines and mandatory sentencing introduced for a limited number of offences are seen as a necessary measure to counteract the rates of high level crime.

Having decided determined that Pistorius was not guilty of premeditated murder, it was then up to the judge to decide between “dollus eventualis” (common murder), culpable homicide or acquittal. Judge Masipa had a spectrum of sentences to choose from in the case with options ranging from a fine and a suspended sentence to 15 years in jail. She explained her sentencing is about “proportionality”, and an appropriate sentence must be “neither too light nor too severe”. 

Comparatively, in the Scots law criminal system there is an absence of publically available sentencing guidelines.  However, Scotland has the advantage of having jury trials, where the decision of the culpability is made by a jury, and not exclusively by a judge. This is not a viable option in South Africa due to the class and racial prejudice inherent in its culture. Additionally, Scotland is unique in having three verdicts: “Guilty”, “Not Guilty” and “Not Proven”, the latter being the likely verdict should Pistorius have been tried for his crimes in Scotland.

Both Criminal systems offer varying advantages, which must be weighed in the context in which they operate. For an in-depth comparison of these systems see: http://www.scotslawblog.com/criminal-law/wicked-reckless-oscar-pistorious-would-have-been-convicted-murder-scotland/

Contact our Criminal Solicitors in Fife   

If you require specialist criminal defence advice on murder, culpable homicide charges or any other matter, give us a call on 01383 730466 (Dunfermline) or 01592 640680 (Kirkcaldy) or contact us online here. 

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