{"id":1696,"date":"2014-09-12T06:51:51","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T06:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=1696"},"modified":"2014-09-12T06:51:51","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T06:51:51","slug":"murder-trial-oscar-pistorius-learns-fate-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=1696","title":{"rendered":"Murder trial: Oscar Pistorius learns fate today"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Oscar<\/a>
Oscar Pistorius in court<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oscar Pistorius on Thursday wept in court as he was cleared of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, Skysports reports.<\/p>\n

But the paralympian will today find out whether he is guilty of manslaughter.<\/p>\n

Judge Thokozile Masipa told Pretoria High Court there was \u2018no doubt\u2019 when Pistorius fired his gun \u2018he acted unlawfully\u2019, and she will rule whether he is guilty of the lesser charge \u2013 known as culpable homicide in South Africa \u2013 over the 29-year-old model\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

At the end of Thursday\u2019s hearing, she found the athlete had acted \u2018negligently, \u2018too hastily\u2019 and used \u2018excessive force\u2019 while failing to take steps to avoid the resultant death.<\/p>\n

Judge Masipa stopped short of giving an actual verdict on manslaughter \u2013 which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison \u2013 and adjourned proceedings for the day.<\/p>\n

Earlier, she cleared Pistorius of both premeditated and second-degree murder, telling the trial \u2018there are not enough facts\u2019 to support the prosecution case that he had intended to kill Ms Steenkamp.<\/p>\n

The judge said the charge of premeditated murder relied on \u2018circumstantial evidence\u2019 from the state, adding: \u201cThe State has not proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of premeditated murder. There are just not enough facts to support such a finding,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pistorius was charged with one count of murder, two of illegally discharging a firearm \u2013 which is unrelated to Ms Steenkamp\u2019s death \u2013 and one of illegally possessing ammunition.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old, his head down and shoulders shaking, was visibly distressed and wept in court as the judge recounted the events of Valentine\u2019s Day last year.<\/p>\n

The prosecution had suggested Pistorius stormed down his bedroom corridor after his frightened girlfriend in a jealous rage and deliberately shot her through the toilet door.<\/p>\n

It had pushed for a verdict of premeditated murder which carried a sentence of 25 years in prison.<\/p>\n

The double amputee sprinter has insisted he was terrified and felt excessively vulnerable due to his disability and shot Steenkamp in a tragic accident, believing her to be an intruder.<\/p>\n

South Africa has no jury system so Judge Masipa is deciding on the verdicts herself with the help of two assessors.<\/p>\n

Proceedings began earlier in the day with the judge outlining the facts of the case before the testimonies of each of the 37 witnesses who gave evidence at the six-month murder trial. Some 21 witnesses testified for the prosecution and 16 for the defence.<\/p>\n

The judge described Pistorius as a \u2018poor and evasive witness\u2019 who was initially composed, then \u2018contradicted himself\u2019 under cross examination.<\/p>\n

She said claims by the defence that police contaminated evidence and removed items from the crime scene \u2018paled into insignificance\u2019 while also rejecting claims by the prosecution that the relationship between Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp was \u2018on the rocks\u2019 and counter claims by the defence that they were \u2018a loving couple\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, none of this evidence from the State and defence proves anything,\u201d she said. \u201cNormal relationships are dynamic and unpredictable most of the time, while human beings are fickle.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oscar Pistorius on Thursday wept in court as he was cleared of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, Skysports reports. But the paralympian will today find out whether he is guilty of manslaughter. Judge Thokozile Masipa told Pretoria High Court there was \u2018no doubt\u2019 when Pistorius fired his gun \u2018he acted unlawfully\u2019, and she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Oscar-Pistorius-in-court-360x202.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-rm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1698,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696\/revisions\/1698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}