Baby Pelser supporters to petition the court

The support group for Deon Pelser, the six-month-old baby who was allegedly murdered by his 22-year-old father Marthinus Pelser, has started a petition to appeal to the court not to grant Pelser bail.

The Justice for Baby Deon Facebook group has initiated the petition on the change.org website, which has been described by the New York Times as ‘The go-to site for uprisings’ and by VentureBeat as ‘The online petitioning site that is arming ordinary people with the tools to start revolutions’. Yesterday (7 September) the petition had only 10 signatures but by the time of publication it has grown to 292. Petitions though have no influence on the decisions of a magistrate.

The petition has wrongly been addressed to Magistrate Delize Smith who would not be presiding since she is currently on holiday. It is uncertain which magistrate will be hearing the bail application.

The petition reads as follows:

“Magistrate Delize Smith: No bail should be granted to the person responsible for Baby Deon’s death.” It then recaps the history of the case.

The group will also support the mother of the baby, who has to testify for the state in Pelser’s bail application tomorrow, by being at the court and wearing white T-shirts in solidarity. They have invited the public to join them. It will be the mother’s first court attendance.

The petition can be found on the group’s Facebook page.

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