IS OSCAR PISTORIUS TELLING THE TRUTH?

After a bedroom argument at 3AM on February 14, 2013, Valentine’s Day morning, Oscar Pistorious fires 4 shots through the closed and locked heavy oak toilet cubicle door in the master bath of his Pretoria home — with intent it was deemed — killing his live-in girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

After being found guilty of culpable homicide, this verdict is overturned.

Ultimately, he is sentenced to 6 years in prison with the possibility of parole, less than one half the customary 15-year minimum penalty imposed in South Africa for a murder conviction.

The Boston Globe reported on Friday July 22nd. that “the South African prosecutors’ office said it will appeal against Oscar Pistorious’s six-year jail sentence and seek a longer prison term for the double-amputee athlete, who was convicted of murder [in the first degree] for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.”

The sentence — based on a murder acquittal and a guilty finding of culpable homicide handed down by Judge Thokozile Masipa who was of the opinion that the prosecution had not proven OP’s intent to murder beyond a reasonable doubt — was universally denounced.

(The charge of “culpable homicide” in South Africa is tantamount to manslaughter. Masipa felt that Pistorious had used “excessive force” and had been “negligent” by firing 4 shots at a closed toilet door, knowing full well that there was someone behind it. The culpable homicide conviction carried a five-year prison sentence with it; after serving just over a year in a maximum security jail in Pretoria OP was released and remanded to serve the rest of the sentence under house arrest).

With the South Africa Court of Appeal’s (in Bloemfontein) overruling of Judge Masipa and subsequent conviction of murder, the “shockingly lenient” 6-year (with the possibility of parole) punishment was put in place.

The life of Oscar Pistorious was indelibly altered at 11 months when he had both legs amputated below the knee. He was born with fibular hemimelia, a congenital absence of the fibula. OP, who was to wear the twin monikers of “The Blade Runner” and “The Fastest Man On No Legs” with fierce pride, learned the lessons of his upbringing well and it seemed, paid little attention to his disability.

He was encouraged to participate and that he did, with pluck. As a young boy he played rugby union, water polo and provincial level tennis and he wrestled in club olympics.

A rather serious rugby knee injury shelved that pursuit and shortly thereafter his attention was turned to running.

A boy with no lower legs would become a world champion paralympic athlete and compete in London’s 2012 Olympic Games against able-bodied opposition, the first double-leg amputee to compete in the Games’ storied history.

A compelling story for the ages.

Until…

Until that fateful 2013 Valentine’s Day early morning.

What was he thinking? Was he thinking?

Why was he fearful of an intruder? Okay, let’s give him that. This kind of stuff happens in today’s world, even in enclaves fortified with and by “impenetrable” security.

And let’s hold aside OP’s affinity for firearms— the shooting range, the (outdoor?) restaurant brandishing and firing episode — in an effort to remain impartial.

Further, does the ‘circumstantial’ even matter in the form of rumors that Oscar was miffed at what he thought was Reeva’s flirting?

We don’t know a lot.

An awful lot we do not know.

We know only what we think we know about Oscar Pistorious. Unless we are part of his inner sanctum, media coverage largely controls that which we “know.”

Same with Reeva.

What do we really know about her? Not too much.

A stunning model. A dutiful daughter. A loving girlfriend (?).

‘Bout it.

For the record we do know that forensic psychologist Merryll Vorster, arguing for the defense told the court that OP had been afflicted with Generalized Anxiety Disorder since childhood, citing as incidents which may have precipitated and even engendered the condition, the amputation of his legs at 11 months; the divorce of his parents when he was six; and the death of his mother when the boy was 15 years old.

After undergoing a court-ordered month-long mental observation/evaluation a panel of four doctors found that Pistorious did not suffer from a mental disorder and that he knew right from wrong.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel was also singularly unimpressed with Vorster’s assertions about OP, accusing Oscar of being a “deceitful witness” who had created a “snowball of lies.”

Nel closed by stating that OP’s three strands of defense — that he discharged the gun either by accident or by mistake, in a panic-stricken state, or in self-defense against a perceived intruder “could never be reconciled.”

Only two people know whether or not Oscar Pistorious is telling the truth.

One is no longer with us. Oscar is the other.

And his punishment is likely to become more severe when his appeal sentence is rendered.

The real truth is buried.

Buried deep in the heart and soul of “The Fastest Man On No Legs.”

Nobody else knows.

[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in July 2016.]

ADDENDUM: In November 2017 South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) more than doubled Oscar Pistorius’ prison term to 13 years and five months — the 15-year minimum penalty for a murder conviction less time served. He will not be eligible for parole until at least 2023.