Pistorius Murder Trial to Bring Scrutiny to South Africa

Summary of Article: On February 14th, 2013, aka Valentine's Day, Oscar Pistorious, a 29 year old Olympic and Paralypmic track star, aka Blade Runner, murdered his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, a 25 year old model and law graduate. He recently has been scheduled to go on trial next month since he was charged by prosecutors with  premeditated murder. Oscar Pistorious claims to have accidentally shot his by girlfriend by thinking she was an intruder into his home in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. This case brings forth a huge problem/idea which is the abuse of women and gun control currently going on in South Africa. Oscar Pistorious may also be charged with a potential 25 year MINIMUM jail term.

My Opinion: Why is that Pistorious has just now been recently charged with the murder of his girlfriend when it happened over a year ago? I personally think that he was able to get away with it for so long because he is rich and probably used his money to pay a lawyer to help convince the court that he did not do so. However, his plan failed since in the article said, "he has recently ADMITTED to killing his girlfriend" and he said it was a mistake. If it was truly a mistake, why is it that it took him a year to confess? If he loved his girlfriend that much and if he did accidentally shoot her, he would've confessed right away because if i was him, i would've felt so bad. Therefore, based off of this information given, i do not think he "accidentally" shot her. As the article has also said, women have been abused and what not, so what if he was abusing her in some way and she decided to take control by upsetting him somehow which lead him to become angry and eventually kill her.

Another reason why i do not believe his killing of his girlfriend is not a mistake is because he did not want to ruin his reputation. He most likely, puts his reputation first before his girlfriend. Pistorious seems to come across as a rich person that puts money before his love and relationships- which is common between many rich people. No one ever wants to ruin his or her reputation but when it comes down to it, i think, telling the truth is always key. Because of all of this, Pistorious sounds like a coward and it sounds like a Valentine's Day gone wrong. 

Link to article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/world/europe/pistorius-murder-trial-to-bring-scrutiny-to-south-africa.html?ref=world