The sentences handed out today to Oscar Pistorius, who murdered his girlfriend, and Lionel Messi, who defrauded Spain to cut his tax bill, certainly give you pause for thought.
Few would agree that six years for killing somebody (half of which probably won’t be spent in prison) is sufficient punishment. It’s unlikely that Messi will actually serve any of his 21-month sentence. Lucky them.
Lionel Messi is unlikely to see the inside of a jail cell, despite being sentenced to prison on tax-fraud charges https://t.co/NGG4ahHR1a
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) July 6, 2016
Consider too Hillary Clinton – who escaped indictment altogether. Regular folks who mishandle classified information tend not to get off so lightly.
5 People Not Named Hillary Clinton Who Were Punished for Mishandling Classified Information https://t.co/VhbnqjKHco via @heatstreet
— Sonja (@wazuberance) July 5, 2016
Whichever way you slice it, it is a good time to be a celebrity defendant – inevitably blessed with a team of highly capable PRs and lawyers.
Under South African law, if Oscar Pistorius had killed a lion, he would have a 25-year minimum sentence. It is hard to see how killing Reeva Steenkamp warrants less.
After his Olympic glory he had a huge wellspring of public support on which to draw. How could such a nice, successful man commit such a crime? It must have been an accident. His years of relatively lenient house arrest were surely linked to this.
But these are personae created for the public – really we know little of what lies beneath a person – as graphic images of Steenkamp’s body presented in recently legal proceedings would appear to show.
Meanwhile Messi is the golden boy of soccer, and has been for years. His talent on the pitch is undeniable – and he clearly has much to offer despite his retirement from the international game.
Timeline: Oscar Pistorius gets six years in jail, ending years of legal twists and turns. https://t.co/t0Fz9Dejxq pic.twitter.com/nv0n915YES
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 6, 2016
An actual prison sentence would wreck his fitness – easier, surely, to give him a slap on the wrist and a criminal record, but let the whole thing die down. It reminds you of the Brock Turner rape case – the judge did not want to “ruin his life” with a long sentence.
The rule was once that the higher you start, the further you have to fall. But talent, power, public sympathy – and a squad of kick-ass lawyers – seem to be a pretty great cushion these days.
