South Africa: U.S. Case With Oscar Parallels - Sentence Reached, and It's Tough

analysis

As murder-accused athlete Oscar Pistorius prepares to learn his fate from Judge Thokozile Masipa on Thursday, sentencing was announced last week in the case of a US man who shot dead a 19-year-old woman on his porch last November. Like Pistorius, Theodore Wafer claimed he believed his safety in his home was under threat from a break-in when he killed an unarmed woman. That hasn't kept him from a 17-year jail term.

Nobody could ever dispute that it was Oscar Pistorius who killed Reeva Steenkamp. He admitted the fact, and there were no other suspects. The similarly unambiguous element of the case against Theodore Wafer, 55, was that he shot dead Renisha McBride, 19, on the night of 2 November, 2013.

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