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@**caution**opinion_ahead wrote:

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@upthecreekyetagain wrote:

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@**caution**opinion_ahead wrote:

You are overlooking a crucial difference.

 

In one scenario, multiple armed intruders were in the room with the occupants (which included a small child).  In the other, an intruder, maybe or maybe not armed, was at best a figment of the imagination and at worst a concoction to cover up a hot-tempered murder.

 

I don't think 5 yrs is too short, BTW.  I do think 10 mths, in a single room (as it was referred to, not "cell"), in a hospital wing is, especially when these conditions were negotiated in advance of the sentence being delivered ... and in advance of the judge piously intoning "We cannot have one law for the rich and famous and one law for the poor".  Are we to believe then that every person convicted of manslaughter and given a 5 yr sentence is afforded these concessions? 

 

 

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The crucial difference is that OP took preemptive action to prevent what he thought were intruder/intruders from getting into the area where he and his girlfriend were.

 

In the case of Senzo Meyiwa he did not have this opportunity to take action and ended up dead!

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That's inaccurate.   The OP said he took preemptive action to prevent what he said he thought was an intruder.

 

You said if Meylwa had shot dead one or more of the actual armed intruders in his actual room that some of us unreasonable posters here would be baying for him to be jailed and complaining about the shortness of the sentence.  I'm saying the two situations were not comparable.  One person was in actual danger of the being killed (and, indeed, was).  The other had an overactive imagination and a short fuse and a gun to hand.  Your implication that some posters here would not be able to see the difference is quite illuminating on your take, not theirs.

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No I did NOT!

Read what I wrote again - here it is -

". . . . . . and if Senzo Meyiwa had shot the intruders through a door he'd have probably got 5 years with some demanding a tougher sentence!"