#mitigating factors

New Post has been published on http://www.brianbrown.net/2014/10/12/hard-day-predicted-for-oscar/

Hard day predicted for Oscar

Dudu Dube

Oscar Pistorius will have to present his mitigating factors with a heart of remorse to try to convince Judge Thoko Masipa to give him a reduced sentence today.

Masipa might take the remorse factor seriously judging by her comments when she sentenced rapist and housebreaker Sheperd “Axeman” Moyo to 252 years in prison last year.

“What weighs on me very heavily is that the accused showed no remorse, therefore it is difficult to imagine he could be rehabilitated,” she said.

Pistorius had initially been charged with murder but Masipa, after considering all evidence, acquitted him of murder and convicted him of culpable homicide.

She found the star athlete had no intention to kill but acted negligently when he shot his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp four times through a closed bathroom door, believing she was a burglar.

Pistorius’s display of remorse, his disability and his history are likely to form part of his argument for a lesser sentence.

Masipa made in clear she did not believe Pistorius was a cold-blooded killer who gunned down his girlfriend in a fit of rage.

“The question is, did the accused foresee the possibility of the result in death yet persisted in his deed recklessly whether death ensued or not? In the circumstances of this case, the answer has to be no,” Masipa said.

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