After his murder trial which began in March with 41 days of testimony spread over months,Oscar Pistorious has been found not guilty of premeditated murder(Intentional killing )of his girlfriend Reeva Stekamp.The double amputee who was in tears through out the reading of the verdict by Judge Thokozile Masipa ,may be charged with Culpable Homicide(Manslaughter)
This would be argued based on his state of mind at the time .Culpable homicide is murder by negligence.She will compare his conduct with that of a reasonable thinking person, and the question would be if a reasonable thinking person would act like he did under the same circumstances ..
The sentencing is purely based the discretion of the judge and precedence(Previous cases) .
On why he was let go of Murder
1.Murder-She said the evidence that he intended to kill Reeva was purely circumstantial.The state failed prove beyond reasonable doubt that he intended to kill her.They didn't have any witness who was there and Oscar was basically the only real witness who knew what happened.
SO the judgement was entirely based on what he said in court.She also said their argument that the couple had heated arguments previously doesn't mean he intended to kill her as relationships are not predictable.
The court is on a break now..Below are some excerpts I gathered during the live proceedings....
On the Witnesses
The judge said most of the witnesses lost credibility because, they failed to separate what they knew personally,from what they had heard from other people and what they gathered from the media.
The incident happened at a very early hour of the morning when most of the witnesses were in bed or partly asleep .
The prosecution based most of their arguments on witnesses to prove there was pre-meditated murder ,however, she has rebuffed most of the witness testimonies .She said the media coverage had influenced the witnesses and their perception towards him.
On the accused
-She said the accused was a very poor witness.He lost his composure and she said the argument that he was suffering from serious emotional stress was not make sense.She said he was an evasive witness. He failed to listen properly to questions put to him during cross examination.A question requiring a straightforward answer turned into another debate.
He always blamed his legal team when he contradicted himself.
-She asked why he did not ascertain whether she heard anything too before getting up,
-Why he did not wake her up when he heard the window open
-Why the accused fired not one but four shots before he ran back to the bedroom to find the deceased
-The accused was not candid with the court when he said he did not intend to shoot anyone,even when he had a loaded firearm in the morning
-She also said lying to the court doesn't not mean he is guilty
Meanwhile, Reeva's parents looked visible pained and heartbroken by the verdict
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