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Essay / Oscar Pistorius - 1380
Should Oscar Pistorius be found guilty of the death of Reeva Steenkamp? How much will his celebrity status affect his decision. Oscar Pistorius is a double amputee who has been lauded for his achievements as a sporting icon. His exploits at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics made him the first notable disabled sports icon to be praised for doing what no other disabled person has done before. His athletic prowess earned him not only 7 gold medals as a Paralympic sprinter, but also silver at the 2011 World Championships in Taegu. Now, at what is arguably the peak of his career, Pistorius has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Trial has been set for March 3, 2014. However, there is currently a huge debate over whether he should be found. guilty or not of manslaughter. Until now, public opinion has not reached a consensus on whether he deliberately and with malicious intent shot his girlfriend. However, due to his popularity and public appeal, he has received a lot of sympathy from his fans who support him regardless of the outcome of the trial. As a result, the case has attracted global attention and one can only wonder in such a situation whether the South African justice system will bow to public influence. South Africa and its people have generally assimilated a defensive way of life. High walls, electric fences and lurid headlines are all features of life to which people have become accustomed. However, crime statistics remain staggering and annual crime reports still manage to stir waves of anxiety among the country's residents and spark fear in the rest of the world. In recent years, crime has reached astonishing heights. A survey conducted between 1998 and the turn of the century, carried out by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, ranked South Africa second for assaults and murders per capita and first for rape per capita in a dataset of 60 countries. Total crime per capita ranks 10th out of the 60 countries in the dataset. (Nation Master, The Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, 04/01/03, Web, 11/04/13) With these somewhat astonishing crime statistics, it was still a shocking news to discover that famous model Reeva Steenkamp had been murdered, shot dead, in her own home.