Oscar - why judge had no option but to have him mentally assessed

Prosecutor Gerry Nels was very clever when he made an application to the Court to have Oscar independently medically assessed.

Judge Masipa had to look at the bigger picture which is the glaring possibility of an appeal should Oscar be convicted without his mental state being independently assessed.

Nels said Oscar had performed poorly on cross examination and the timing of the assessment by Dr Vorster, after  Oscar made a poor fist of his evidence; coupled with the fact that Vorster was brought in basically at the end of the Defence, was suspicious.

Vorster was only hired to assess Oscar on May 2nd 2014.  She saw him twice, relied on Oscars "version" and only interviewed his close family and supporters.  In that time she diagnosed Oscar with  Generalised Anxiety Disorder.

In the bail application Oscar claimed self-defence…the technical term is “putative self- defence” which is a genuine belief that your life was in danger, even when it turns out that you were wrong.

To claim that successfully you must admit that you fired at the “intruder”

Oscar refused when cross examined by Nel to state that he fired the gun...he said the gun just went off when it was pointed in the direction of the door (he said exactly the same thing on the charge of discharging a firearm at a restaurant).

The refusal by Oscar to say he fired the gun gave a potential second defence of automatism (you were not aware of your actions) …that defence does not work for Oscar , as there is strong case law in South Africa that for successful defence by automatism it  must be that the accused cannot remember moments leading up to the event, and Oscar does.

With Vorster's evidence  there could be another version …decreased mental capacity…the issue being (as stated by Vorster) YES Oscar knew the difference between right and wrong …BUT …Generalised Anxiety Disorder … COULD have stopped him from acting appropriately.