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Manslaughter conviction in fatal marching band hazing in Florida
ORLan'O Fla. (Reuters) – T' ringleed'r o'a a'beatin ritual at let ta t'deeth o'a Flerida college marchin ban' memb'r wuz convictid un Frydee o'manslaught'r an' felony hazyun', t'furst case ta go ta trial n' un incident at drew nashshunal tenchun ta hazyun' abuses. A jury convictid...
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Manslaughter conviction in fatal marching band hazing in Florida
ORLANDO Fla. (Reuters) – The ringleader of a beating ritual that led to the death of a Florida college marching band member was convicted on Friday of manslaughter and felony hazing, the first case to go to trial in an incident that drew national attention to hazing abuses. A jury convicted percussionist Dante Martin, 27, for his role in a November 2011 ritual involving the Florida AM University’s celebrated “Marching 100″ band that led to the death of Robert Champion, a 26-year-old drum major.”The jury spoke loud and clear that this won’t be tolerated,” said Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the Champion family, which has been pressing for justice for three years.”For the family, it’s bittersweet,” Julison added. “They are spent. They’re emotionally drained.”During the trial, witnesses detailed the ritual known as “Crossing Bus C,” in which participants made their way from the front to the back of the percussionists’ travel bus while being kicked, punched, whipped and hit with drum mallets.A medical examiner found Champion died of hemorrhagic shock from blunt force trauma after running a gauntlet of band members beating him on the darkened charter bus.Champion died onboard the bus, which brought the band to Orlando for a football game between Florida AM and another historically black university. At halftime, the two schools’ bands competed during popular, jazz-inspired shows.After the verdict, Martin was handcuffed and taken into custody. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 9. Under Florida sentencing guidelines, he faces nine to 22 years in jail, said David Weinstein, a former state prosecutor now in private practice in Miami.Martin’s defense attorneys said they are planning to seek a mistrial.Martin, who was the percussion section president, was the first of 14 band members charged in the incident to go to trial. Nine others received probation and community service in plea deals, and one was sentenced to almost a year in jail.Three others are scheduled to go on trial next year. (Reporting by Barbara Liston in Orlando and David Adams in Miami; Writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Chris Reese, David Gregorio and Eric Beech)
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Pistorius Lawyer Urges Judge Not to Impose Jail Time for Killing
Oscar Pistorius’s lawyer pleaded for a lenient sentence for the athlete’s manslaughter conviction for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, saying “he has lost everything.”
Defense attorney Barry Roux urged Judge Thokozile Masipa to consider that Pistorius, 27, wasn’t found guilty of premeditated murder and that he “did not consciously act unlawfully.” Masipa will hand down a sentence that may range from as many as 15 years in prison to as little as a fine.
“He never, ever, not once even, considered that it was Miss Steenkamp behind that door,” Roux said in the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital, describing Pistorius’s shooting of Steenkamp in a toilet cubicle at his home on Valentine’s Day last year. “His actions were to some extent dominated by anxiety and vulnerability.”
Roux said a prison sentence wouldn’t be “conducive at all” and that the double-amputee athlete requires constant medical attention. He urged Masipa to impose a sentence of community-based service.
“He has lost everything, this man was a global icon,” Roux said. “He has nothing left, he can’t even pay his legal fees.”
Two witnesses called by the defense this week suggested that Pistorius should be given a sentence off three years’ house arrest with community service.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel responded in his statement that a sentence of house of arrest with community service is “shockingly disproportionate.”
Pistorius’s offer to Steenkamp’s parents of 375,000 rand ($34,000) he got for selling a car was an attempt to influence the sentencing, Nel said.
Prison Hospital
Masipa cleared Pistorius of murder charges before convicting him of culpable homicide for killing Steenkamp when he fired four hollow-point bullets through a toilet door in his house. Pistorius said he thought Steenkamp was an intruder.
Yesterday, South Africa’s head of correctional services, Zach Modise, said that if sentenced to jail, Pistorius would probably be held in a hospital at Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria.
Modise was the last witness called by Nel in the hearing.
“I can assure this court that he will go to the hospital section because we know that Mr. Pistorius is a person with a disability,” Modise said.
Steenkamp’s cousin, Kim Martin, told the court yesterday that Pistorius must serve time in prison.
Blade Runner
“My family are not people who are seeking revenge, we just feel that to take someone’s life, to shoot somebody behind a door, that is unarmed, that is harmless, needs sufficient punishment,” she said.
Known as the Blade Runner because of his J-shaped prosthetic running blades, Pistorius was the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics. His trial drew a worldwide audience and derailed the running career of the winner of six Paralympic gold medals and cost Pistorius sponsorship deals with Nike Inc. (NKE:US) and Luxottica Group SpA (LUX)’s Oakley.
After his conviction, Masipa extended his bail of 1 million rand ($90,000). Pistorius will be free to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro as long as the judge doesn’t hand down a multiple-year jail term, South Africa’s Olympic Committee said last month.
To contact the reporters on this story: Janice Kew in Pretoria at [email protected]; Christopher Spillane in Johannesburg at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected] Karl Maier, Gordon Bell
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Pistorius Lawyer Urges Judge Not to Impose Jail Time for Killing
Oscar Pisterius’s lawy'r pleedet fer a lenient santence fer t'athlete’s manslaught'r convicshun fer killin his'n girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a'sayn't “he has lost everthang.” Defents atterney Barry Roux urget Judge Thokozile Masipa ta cunsidder at Pisterius, 27, wasn’t foun gilty o'premedi...
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Pistorius free on bail after manslaughter conviction, sentencing on Oct 13
PRETORIA, Sept 12, 2014:
Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic gold medalist, was freed on bail after he was convicted of manslaughter for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and of firing a gun in a crowded restaurant.
Judge Thokozile Masipa extended his bail of 1 million rand (RM290,776) at the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital today, and scheduled his sentencing hearing to start on Oct 13.
His punishment for culpable homicide, or manslaughter, could range from a fine to as many as 15 years in jail.
“The accused acted negligently when he fired shots into the toilet door knowing that there was someone behind the door and that there was very little room in which to maneuver,” Masipa said.
“A reasonable person, therefore, in the position of the accused with similar disability would have foreseen the possibility that whoever was behind the door might be killed by the shots.”
Known as the Blade Runner because of his J-shaped prosthetic running blades, Pistorius was the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics.
His trial drew a worldwide audience and derailed the running career of the winner of six Paralympic gold medals and cost Pistorius sponsorship deals with Nike Inc and Luxottica Group SpA’s Oakley.
Pistorius shot four hollow-point bullets through a locked toilet door, killing Steenkamp, whom he said he mistakenly believed was an intruder in his home in the early hours of the morning on Feb 14, last year.
“Probably you’re looking at three to four years, but it’s very difficult to predict as one will have to wait to see what arguments both sides come up with,” Ulrich Roux, a director at Johannesburg-based BDK Attorneys, said by phone.
Court Crowd
Police struggled to contain a crowd of people clamouring to touch Pistorius as he left the court.
The athlete hugged his sister, Aimee, in the dock after the verdict, while June Steenkamp, Reeva’s mother, comforted a family member.
Masipa, 66, acquitted Pistorius on charges of murder and two gun-related offences.
“There is no basis for this court to make inferences why the accused would want to kill the deceased,” Masipa said.
“It could not be said that he foresaw that either the deceased or anyone else for that matter might be killed when he fired the shots at the toilet door.”
Arnold Pistorius, Oscar’s uncle and family spokesman, said the acquittal on the murder charges was “a big burden off our shoulders and Oscar”.
“We always knew the facts of the matter and we had never any doubt in Oscar’s version of this tragic incident,” he told reporters in the court after the adjournment.
Law interpretation
The state may appeal the verdict by arguing that Masipa misinterpreted the law on the charge of “dolus eventualis”, or murder, Stephen Tuson, an adjunct professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said by phone.
“The state may well wish to take the verdict on the murder charge on appeal,” he said.
“They’re going to have to demonstrate to an appeal court that there was an error of law by the judge in her interpretation of what the law dolus eventualis is.”
The National Prosecuting Authority is “disappointed” with the verdict and will consider its options after the sentencing, NPA spokesman Nathi Mncube told Johannesburg-based eCNA television.
The agency is responsible for deciding whether or not to appeal the judgment.
Appeals Court Sets Date in Michael Jackson Case
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California court has scheduled arguments next month for Michael Jackson’s doctor to appeal his involuntary manslaughter conviction.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles set arguments in the case for Jan. 9.
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