In any European, UK or USA Court Mr Nel’s unethical tactics would not have been tolerated at all.
Overseas websites have commented on this, questioning his bullying and badgering manners. The judge is strange enough not protecting the accused in this regard and this is certainly questionable. The defense attorney Barry Roux has objected in some cases, but not nearly as much as he should have.
The prosecutor Mr Nel is in my view far from brilliant, rather acting like an idiot. He is badgering the witness and repeatedly asking questions the accused already has answered. Oscar should answer him “I already have answered that question, please refer to the records what my answer was”.
Or appeal to “My Lady” to have his already rendered answer to be read back to Mr Nel. Repeating the same questions over and over at the different times during the trial, getting the answers from the accused and then going back to that again repeatedly at a later stage can certainly be very confusing to a person under such immense stress as the accused is experiencing. No one can blame him for becoming emotionally frustrated.
How many times is Mr Nel going to ask the same questions over and over? Until he gets an answer that is acceptable to him and not the true state of what actually may have happened? The defense lawyer should continuously object to the way Mr Nel is bullying the accused, accusing him of lying whilst by no means he has been able to show any substantial evidence that the accused is indeed not telling the truth. He can only guess and surmise. He has brought forth no circumstantial or convincing forensic evidence at all. No one can blame the accused of breaking down emotionally, if he is indeed trying to tell the truth, whilst been treated in the way Mr Nel has been twisting his answers and putting words into his mouth so to say.
What if Oscar’s version is in fact what truly happened? Must he fabricate a different story for the sake of the public and the prosecutor. That is absurd to the utmost degree. If Mr Nel had any UK, European or USA defense lawyer opposing his prosecuting in court, he would have been ripped apart by now.
It may be a mite unrealistic to say it, but if fictional defense lawyer Perry Mason, known to many ardent court case enthusiasts, and created by a world renowned author and actual defense lawyer Erle Stanley Gardner, were in this court to defend Mr Pistorius, he would be objecting non stop to the unethical way that Mr Nel repeatedly abuses the legal rights of the accused.
The public, Reeva’s family and Mr Nel have condemned Oscar prematurely long before he has been proven guilty beyond any doubt. No one in their right mind in the stressful condition that the accused was in that night, would be able to recall the exact facts and details of the incident that night. One does not face violent suspected criminals at the spur of the moment with a pocket book to record every minute detail.
Mr Nel questions the fact that no lights were switched on by the victim as being unbelievable and far-fetched. I personally detest switching on lights when awakening to go to the toilet at night. From memory and the available natural light even at night time from outside, I walk from my bedroom through my lounge and enter the toilet/ bathroom through the kitchen without any lights on almost every night. Mr Nel is unrealistic and on a witch hunt rather than showing any brilliance in proving that the accused is lying.
I am by no means biased for Oscar, but anyone accused of murder needs and deserves to be proved guilty fairly and honestly without doubt. It is doubtful whether the judicial system of South Africa will result in a fair and righteous verdict for Mr Pistorius.
If the judge is capable of righteous discernment, she could in all fairness believe Oscar’s desperate and very difficult task to relate what he knows to be the truth, as he personally experienced in the presence of no one else, and render a verdict of unintentional and accidental homicide. No one should blame her if she renders such a verdict and gives him a suspended sentence. A large percentage of South Africans have experienced violent hi-jacking, burglaries, mugging, been physically assaulted, raped etc. The list goes on and on. They would understand the mental and emotional trauma it results in. Oscar has had such experiences and testified about his constant fear in this regard.
Who is Mr Gerrie Nel or anybody who has not had experience of such a trauma or suffering to render judgement about the truth of what actually happened that night. Maybe they should ask our local victims of Muldersdrift family murders about it.
PS. I feel my comments should be published in view of the extreme local crime rate and the unusual interest the Oscar Pistorius case is getting from the whole South African public and all over the world.
