Watching Oscars verdict session today was an awesome experience. The female judge was wonderful too, u can read some of the reasons why he wasnt convicted for murder, 1) Pistorius cannot be found guilty of murder:Masipa said the most severe charge facing Pistorius — premeditated murder — was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt. She called the evidence purely circumstantial. There are just not enough facts to support such a finding, she said. She also ruled out a lesser murder charge, saying Pistorius did not foresee he could kill anyone the night he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a closed bathroom door. Clearly [Pistorius] did not subjectively foresee this as a possibility that he would kill the person behind the door, let alone the deceased as he thought she was in the bedroom. 2) Pistorius was negligent when he killed Steenkamp:Masipa said she was not persuaded that a reasonable person with Pistoriuss abilities would have fired the shots that killed the law graduate and model. I am of the view that the accused acted too hastily and with excessive force, Masipa said. The judge also called culpable homicide a competent verdict, a decision that would could see Pistorius sent to jail for a maximum of 15 years, although five years in prison is a guideline when a firearm is used. 3) Pistorius was a bad witness:Masipa said Pistorius was a very poor, evasive witness who was not candid and contradicted himself under cross-examination, but she emphasized that did not mean he was guilty of murder. 4) There is some doubt as to whether a woman screamed the night of the killing:The state had argued Steenkamp screamed during a heated row with the Paralympic athlete before he deliberately shot her through the bathroom door. Casting doubt on witness accounts of hearing a womans screams, Masipa said none of the witnesses had ever heard the accused cry or scream, let alone when he was anxious, apparently acknowledging the defence argument that Pistorius had been screaming in a high-pitched voice. Masipa also cited testimony of an acoustics expert called by the defence, saying it cast serious doubt on whether witnesses who were hundreds of metres away in their homes — as some state witnesses were — could have differentiated between the screams of a man or a woman. 5) Allegations of contaminated evidence were not significant:Defence claims that police contaminated evidence and removed items from the crime scene paled into insignificance, Masipa said. 6) Text messages between the couple were not relevant:Prosecutors had submitted text messages that showed tension between Pistorius and Steenkamp in an attempt to prove that Pistorius had a motive to kill his girlfriend, while the defence submitted messages that indicated mutual affection. That evidence, the judge said, doesnt prove anything. Normal relationships are dynamic and unpredictable most of the time, while human beings are fickle, she said.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:43:39 +0000
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