OSCAR PISTORIUS, South Africa's celebrated disabled athlete, was found guilty of negligently killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The trial and verdict shed light on both the country's gun culture and high levels of crime as well as a judiciary once synonymous with apartheid that has since become a jewel of its democracy.
Few of the facts of the case were contested. Both prosecution and defence agreed that late one night in February 2013 Mr Pistorius fired four shots from a gun through the closed door of his bathroom, striking and killing Ms Steenkamp. But prosecutors and Mr Pistorius disagreed over why he fired and whether his actions were reasonable. Mr Pistorius says he thought that there was an intruder behind the door and feared for his life.
That seemed reasonable enough to a court in a country that suffers from one of the world's highest crime and murder rates. That Mr Pistorius had a gun was also not unusual. Some 2.5m of South Africa's 51m citizens are legally registered to own guns, many of which are kept for self-defence in a country where few people have faith in the...Continue reading
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