Judge: Oscar Pistorius ‘negligent,’ but not guilty of premeditated murder
The Olympic athlete faces charges of premeditated murder in the Valentine’s Day 2013 shooting of his girlfriend.
Sept. 11, 2014 South African Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius arrives at the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa.
The prosecution did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Olympic
athlete Oscar Pistorius committed premeditated murder in the Valentine’s
Day 2013 killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a South African
judge said Thursday morning at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
However, the judge added that it “is clear that his conduct was
negligent.”
Judge Thokozile Masipa’s comment seems to be an indication that she is prepared to find Pistorius guilty of a lesser charge, “culpable homicide.” She will resume delivering her verdict on Friday morning.
Culpable homicide,” or manslaughter, can carry anything from a suspended sentence to a long jail term, according to the AFP. On Thursday, the judge explained her reasoning on this charge, applying the “reasonable man” test.
In other words, the judge examined whether it was reasonable for Pistorius to fire four shots through his bathroom door at what he believed was an intruder. Although she appeared to stop short of a ruling on the charge before adjourning court until Friday, Masipa did indicate Pistorius did not pass this test.
“All the accused had to do was pick up his cell phone to call security,” Masipa said of Pistorius’s reaction. She added that Pistorius could also have “run to the balcony” and called for help. Masipa added that she was “not persuaded that a reasonable person with the accused’s disabilities in the same circumstances would have fired four shots” into the home’s small bathroom. Pistorius is a double-amputee.
Pistorius killed Steenkamp about six months after he dazzled the world by running in the Olympics on carbon-fiber blades called “Flex-Foot Cheetahs.” He mastered the springy devices so completely that competitors claimed he had an unfair advantage and tried to keep him confined to the Paralympics. So skilled was Pistorius, and so disciplined in his training, that one scientist described him as “a pioneer on the posthuman frontier.”
Judge Thokozile Masipa’s comment seems to be an indication that she is prepared to find Pistorius guilty of a lesser charge, “culpable homicide.” She will resume delivering her verdict on Friday morning.
Culpable homicide,” or manslaughter, can carry anything from a suspended sentence to a long jail term, according to the AFP. On Thursday, the judge explained her reasoning on this charge, applying the “reasonable man” test.
In other words, the judge examined whether it was reasonable for Pistorius to fire four shots through his bathroom door at what he believed was an intruder. Although she appeared to stop short of a ruling on the charge before adjourning court until Friday, Masipa did indicate Pistorius did not pass this test.
“All the accused had to do was pick up his cell phone to call security,” Masipa said of Pistorius’s reaction. She added that Pistorius could also have “run to the balcony” and called for help. Masipa added that she was “not persuaded that a reasonable person with the accused’s disabilities in the same circumstances would have fired four shots” into the home’s small bathroom. Pistorius is a double-amputee.
Pistorius killed Steenkamp about six months after he dazzled the world by running in the Olympics on carbon-fiber blades called “Flex-Foot Cheetahs.” He mastered the springy devices so completely that competitors claimed he had an unfair advantage and tried to keep him confined to the Paralympics. So skilled was Pistorius, and so disciplined in his training, that one scientist described him as “a pioneer on the posthuman frontier.”
After becoming a Paralympics champion, Pistorius attempted to enter able-bodied international competition, over persistent objections of the IAAF and charges that his artificial limbs gave an unfair advantage. Pistorius eventually prevailed in this legal dispute. At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Pistorius became the first amputee to win an able-bodied world track medal. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Pistorius became the first double leg amputee to participate in the Olympics when he entered the men's 400 metres and 4 × 400 metres relay races. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, Pistorius won gold medals in the men's 400-metre race and in the 4 × 100 metres relay, setting world records in both events. He also took a silver in the 200-metre race, having set a world record in the semifinal.
On 14 February 2013, Pistorius was charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, whom he had fatally shot at his home in the early hours of that morning. He was granted bail on 22 February 2013 and at a hearing on 19 August 2013, dates were set for a trial to start on 3 March 2014. On 11 September, some of the verdict was delivered and Pistorius was found not guilty of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, however he still may be found guilty of culpable homicide and some gun-related charges in the verdict due to be delivered on 12 September
Oscar Pistorius was born to Henke and Sheila Pistorius on 22 November 1986 in Sandton, Johannesburg, in what was then Transvaal Province (now Gauteng Province) of South Africa.
He grew up in a Christian home,and has an elder brother, Carl, and a younger sister, Aimée.Pistorius credits his mother, who died at the age of 43 when Pistorius was 15 years old, as a major influence in his life.
He is a white South African with Italian ancestry from his mother's grandfather, an Italian emigrant to He is English-speaking.
Pistorius was born with fibular hemimelia (congenital absence of the fibula) in both legs. When he was 11 months old, his legs were amputated halfway between his knees and ankles.He attended Constantia Kloof Primary School and Pretoria Boys High School, where he played rugby union in the school's third XV team.He played water polo and tennis at provincial level between the ages of 11 and 13. In addition, Pistorius took part in club Olympic wrestling, and trained at Jannie Brooks's garage gym in Pretoria, South Africa. After a serious rugby knee injury in June 2003, he was introduced to running in January 2004 while undergoing rehabilitation at the University of Pretoria's High Performance Centre with coach Ampie Louw, and "never looked back". His first racing blades were fitted by South African prosthetist Francois van der Watt. Because he was unable to find suitable running blades in Pretoria, van der Watt ordered some to be made by a local engineer. However, as these quickly broke, van der Watt referred Pistorius to American prosthetist and Paralympic sprinter Brian Frasure to be fitted for blades by Icelandic company Össur.
Pistorius began studying for a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) in business management with sports science at the University of Pretoria in 2006.
In a June 2008 interview for his University's website, he joked: "I won't graduate soon. With all the training I have had to cut down on my subjects. Hopefully I'll finish by the time I'm 30!" Asked by a journalist for his "sporting motto", he said: "You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have."
Pistorius, who has double below-knee amputations, competes in T44 (single below-knee amputees) events though he is actually classified in T43 (double below knee amputee). Sometimes referred to as the "Blade Runner" and "the fastest man on no legs",Pistorius took part in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens and came third overall in the T44 (one leg amputated below the knee) 100-metre event.
Despite falling in the preliminary round for the 200 metres, he qualified for the final. He went on to win the final in a world record time of 21.97 seconds, besting a pair of American runners both possessing a single amputation, Marlon Shirley and Brian Frasure.
In 2005, Pistorius finished sixth in the able-bodied South African Championships over 400 metres with a world-record time of 47.34 seconds,
and at the Paralympic World Cup in the same year, he won gold in the 100 metres and 200 metres, beating his previous 200-metre world record. At the 2006 Paralympic Athletics World Championships, Pistorius won gold in the 100-, 200- and 400-metre events, breaking the world record over 200 metres. On 17 March 2007, he set a disability sports world record for the 400 metres (46.56 seconds) at the South African Senior Athletics Championships in Durban; and at the Nedbank Championships for the Physically Disabled held in Johannesburg in April 2007, he became the world record holder of the 100- and 200-metre events with times of 10.91 and 21.58 seconds respectively
Pistorius was invited by the IAAF to take part in what would have been his first international able-bodied event, the 400-metre race at the IAAF Grand Prix in Helsinki, Finland, in July 2005. He was unable to attend, however, because of school commitments.On 13 July 2007, Pistorius ran in the 400-metre race at Rome's Golden Gala and finished second in run B with a time of 46.90 seconds, behind Stefano Braciola who ran 46.72 seconds.This was a warm-up for his appearance at the 400 metres at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield on 15 July 2007.
As American Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner stumbled at the start of the race and stopped running, Pistorius took seventh place in a field of eight in wet conditions with a time of 47.65 seconds. However, he was later disqualified for running outside his lane. The race was won by American Angelo Taylor with a time of 45.25 seconds. Pistorius had ambitions of competing in other able-bodied events. In particular, he had set his sights on competing at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China,but was ultimately not selected by the South African Olympic Committee (see below
Murder case
n the early morning of Thursday, 14 February 2013, Pistorius shot and killed South African model Reeva Steenkamp, his girlfriend of three months, at his home in Pretoria.
Pistorius acknowledges that he shot Steenkamp, causing her death, but says that he mistook her for a possible intruder.
Pistorius' trial for murder began on 3 March 2014 in Pretoria.
On 20 May 2014, the trial proceedings were adjourned until 30 June to
enable Pistorius to undergo psychiatric evaluation to establish whether
he was criminally responsible for shooting Steenkamp. Judge Thokozile Masipa agreed to a request for the evaluation by prosecutor Gerrie Nel after forensic psychiatrist Merryll Vorster testified for the defence that she had diagnosed Pistorius with generalized anxiety disorder. On 30 June 2014, the trial resumed after the evaluation reports which
said Pistorius could be held criminally responsible. The state
prosecutor was quoted as saying, "Mr Pistorius did not suffer from a
mental illness or defect that would have rendered him criminally not
responsible for the offence charged".
The defence closed its case on 8 July and closing arguments were heard
on 7 and 8 August. On 11 September, some of the verdict was delivered
and Pistorius was found not guilty of murdering his girlfriend Reeva
Steenkamp, however he still may be found guilty of culpable homicide and some gun-related charges in the verdict due to be delivered on 12 September.
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