Last week ushered in tons of courtroom drama for Oscar Pistorius and his team of attorneys. Unfortunately, for the news blogs, that's likely the last public drama were going to see. This case is pointing clearly toward a plea bargain, thus ending the dramatic legal standoff.
The case, it seems, hinges on Oscar's mental state that evening and whether or not he can sell his viewpoint that he was haunted by the demons of domestic break-ins. After a four-day hearing last week, Pistorius was released on a bail of a million rand, or about $140,000.
Like the United States, South Africa has a deeply rooted foundation of plea bargaining. The Pistorius case will probably end the same way. For Oscar, he knows fully well the life sentence staring at him if he cannot sell the altered state of mind that fateful evening. A plea might, the key word here being 'might', bring a relatively short sentence. Kind of like a manslaughter conviction in the U.S. 5-7 years kind of range.
Oscar's team fully knows they have a defensible case given the highly violent residential culture dominating South Africa. So that's maybe why the government may want to deal. Also, the government knows that domestic violence cases don't end up convictions often and also that it will have a terrible time proving motive given that no public spats are on record nor are any complaints filed by Steenkamp.
So, one thing in this case is crystal clear: it could go either way. With the risk of uncertainty too intolerable, both sides would welcome a plea deal.
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