The decision itself, though lengthy, is actually very enlightening and precise in its arguments.
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@El_Dorado If I read that correctly the court is basically saying they have to take this step to prevent civil trials being used as a way to compel a person to incriminate themselves and so be used as a back door to a criminal prosecution.
The summary of the case also shows how unlikely the prosecution would have been to gain a conviction ex his testimony, which they only received by assuring him he would not be prosecuted. No one is compelled by law to incriminate himself, even in a civil case, and I’m sure most men facing a similar predicament would simply lie. It’s very odd for him both to provide that testimony and settle the case financially, but I suppose the prosecutor compelled him to in order to provide some closure for her. As a side bar it will be interesting to see if Phylicia Rashad gets drummed out of Howard University for cheering his release.
Does this release mean the victims cannot bring charges against him anymore unless new evidence is found or they could, just have to go through the whole process again?
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The town has been destroyed. What will it take to wake us up?
For most of the women he allegedly attacked, the criminal statute of limitations has passed. It varies state to state. Usually, it’s around 10 - 12 years. Some women still have the option of bringing a civil suit against him, and there are civil suits pending against him.
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Sometimes I wonder why there are such things called statute of limitations. Why would crime have a time limit in terms of being prosecuted? Never understood those, I mean in some countries, even murder can have a statute of limitations. How that make sense is beyond me. Maybe someone with more legal knowledge can enlighten me
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RIP
Parts of our country are aflame, my province in particular. The former president was jailed for contempt last week and large factions of the Zulu nation started violently protesting for his release. Kwazulu-natal has erupted over the last weekend, all major road networks have been shut down, trucks burned along the highways and it has since descended into massive mobs looting and burning. Durban is in chaos, smaller towns and cities shut down, private enterprises looted and burned. Entire shopping malls are empty and burned, some are still burning. Police and security companies are stretched, communities have had to band together and form ad hoc militias to protect their businesses and property. They’ve barricaded roads and standing guard to fight the mobs that are gathering.
The army has been given a mobilization order this afternoon and a state of emergency declared but getting them armed to deal appropriately with crowd control as well as establish a command and control structure with the police and private security companies will take some time. In the meantime, the looting, pillaging and burning continues.
I have videos upon videos, voice note upon voice note. The panic is palpable. I am in what should be a relatively safe area, touch wood, but protests are just 10km from me as the crow flies. I’m at home with my little family and the helplessness is… debilitating as if anything were to happen we are all but defenceless. In the aftermath of this, I am not going to give a shit about anyone and I am going to make sure I’m armed to the teeth. Alot of the utterings have been unmistakabley tribal and ethnic in nature and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be left feeling like this again.
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Shit; sounds like things are snowballing rapidly in ZAF.
Stay safe, mate. 
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@wyld.at.hrt , stay safe mate!
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That sounds pretty terrifying. Hope you stay safe mate @wyld.at.hrt
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Take care mate.
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Thanks chaps. @aussielad yeah, it’s quite a surreal feeling and not something I have ever felt before. When I was about 6 the township opposite us went up in major rioting. This was before the abolishment of apartheid and the then government, as I was later to learn, was responsible for it as they pitted tribal factions against one another in a divide and conquer strategy and as such they let it burn with almost no intervention bar to keep them contained to their area. I remember lines upon lines of women and children trying to escape and us taking in some friends of my mom. Too young to understand then, now I understand what mom must have been feeling looking me when I look at my sons and wife now… fear, worry, helplessness. I took a walk outside now so they don’t see it in me.
I love this sad country of mine; the land, the people. I was born here, I will die here. Africa is in my blood and the sad truth is we will in all likelihood never heal and become one. There is just too much beneath the surface and at moments like this you realise how fragile that surface is. I have all the nations of the land in me, as do my sons, yet I have never felt less a part of it as I do now. ‘Mayibuye Afrika, come back to us’
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The situation looks and sounds really scary. Take care mate.
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Nope doesn’t sound too good at all at the moment for ya WAH…
Stay safe eh and take no foolish risks whatsoever.! 
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Bless you @wyld.at.hrt , your lovely family, and the country and the people you love so dearly.
You will be in my prayers.
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