I think in theory they could. I can imagine any hysterical person's screams could be so high-pitched it would be difficult to tell if it was a male or female doing the screaming. Still, I don't know if I buy it in this case.
GailD thanks for the information on this case. I have wanted to know, even if he is found not guilty of murder, isn't he charged with some kind of gross negligence for shooting into a door and killing someone? Will he go to jail regardless?
If Pistorius is found not guilty of murder, it will mean that his 'self defense' (against imagined intruders) theory has succeeded and he will get off - no jail time. He might get nailed on the negligent/reckless use of a firearm, but the evidence I've heard so far is, imo, so close to hearsay that I doubt the judge will do more than give him a fine for that.
Dear heaven...you're going to make me introduce
a Simpsons reference in a thread about a murder trial.
eeeeeeeeeeeeee!
There's a Jose Chung's From Outer Space joke lurking too - anyone who gets that ref without looking it up is my pal.
Sounds aside, I don't see how his story holds up. There's no logic to it at all (if you're sleeping with someone you're used to sleeping with, in a room with an adjacent bathroom, a noise from said bathroom doesn't indicate 'intruder' so much as 'other person went to the bathroom,' considering he claims he didn't so much as glance over to see if she was in the bed); it's filled with contradictions and there's basic science, last I heard, that shows him a liar (the angle of the shots vs. when he said he put his legs on, which was important to his basic claim, etc.).
Of course, OJ's story didn't hold up to a five-year-old's scrutiny either and look what happened there, though that was the doing of a jury.
You're right. There doesn't appear to be any logic to it. But then again, I don't think we're dealing with a very 'logical' person here.
Consider this: Oscar Pistorius rose from relative obscurity to become an overnight sensation in the sporting world. Due to a congenital deformity, his lower legs were amputated when he was a small child. One has to wonder what the psychological effects of
that might have been. Maybe he was bullied at school? Who knows? But documentaries in which close friends were interviewed show a man with a penchant for firearms. He loves guns. He loves firing guns, shooting at things. Then, along comes all this fame, people revere him, women are throwing themselves at him, the world is at his
feet blades and he feels invincible. He gets away with pushing people around and dishing out verbal abuse with no consequence. Other people cover up for him. He can do anything and get away with it.
Imho, this man has probably been wanting to fire a gun at somebody for a long time. If he thought there were intruders, his first thought may have been, 'At last, I get to shooting someone'. So, no checking up on girlfriend's whereabouts. No calling out to ascertain if there really
was an intruder. No grabbing the phone and calling security. Just get that gun out and shoot.
Logical? To you or I? Hell no. But to Pistorius, yeah.
PS. The X-Files were easier to figure out.
Oh, I thought I had heard he did hit with with the bat after shooting her.
I think if a man is seriously wounded or terrified he can shriek and sound like a woman. A man screaming in anger or grief, not so much.
I also give a great deal of weight to the testimony of the ex-girlfriend who apparently he had no problem screaming at. She'd know what he sounded like.
That's correct. I listened to her testimony and she said he screamed at her in
anger. What I'm wondering though, is does a scream of anger sound exactly the same as a scream of terror or horror? I don't think so.
It doesn't make sense that he didn't wake his girlfriend before investigating the supposed intruder. He went to the bed to get his gun. Would he not notice that she was gone?
I agree. It doesn't make sense not to look around and see where your partner is before you go rushing off to shoot someone. But as I said to Cornflake, I don't think this man has been operating on what you and I would consider logic - or what passes for consensus logic, anyway.
