Pistorius cleared of premeditated murder

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius wept as he was found not guilty of premeditated murder and murder by a South African court today. Both Pistorius' brother and Steenkamp's family were present in the packed courtroom as the South African Judge read out her verdict. He may yet be found guilty of culpable homicide.

In delivering judgment, Judge Thokozile Masipe said "All the accused had to do was pick up his cellphone to call police or run to the balcony and scream. There was no explanation as to why he did not do so before heading to the bathroom with a loaded firearm." His being a victim of violent crime in the past, did not excuse his actions. Masipe said she was"of the view that the accused acted too hastily and used excessive force. He acted negligently".

The accused acted too hastily and used excessive force. He acted negligently Judge Thokozile Masipe

The judge remarked that "media attention did not assist" the uncovering the truth in this case and "most witnesses got their facts wrong” as she pronounced her verdict on the athlete this morning. All evidence of premeditation was rejected by the judge.

Pistorius had been charged with murdering his girlfriend, Reena  Steenkamp, on Valentine’s day. He was also charged with several firearms offences relating to unlawfully discharging firearms in a built up area.

Months of expert testimony, character witnesses, legal arguments and counter arguments regarding the central question of Pistorius' intent drew to a close on the 8th August. At some stages during the trial, Pistorious' appeared in a fragile mental state, at one point being physically sick when scene of crime officers had exhibited harrowing photographs of the victim's injuries to the court.

The facts of the case were not in dispute -  Pistorius never denied that he had shot his girlfriend to death through a bathroom door, so the case revolved around the presence of criminal intent at the time of the shooting. Pistorius claimed that he mistook her for an intruder entering the house via the unbarred bathroom window. He said that, feeling fearful without his prosthetic legs and unaware that Steenkamp was not in bed, he fired four rounds of hollow-point ammunition through the closed bathroom door, striking his girlfriend in the elbow, groin, hand and temple as a result. Steenkamp died shortly after.

Pistorius was charged with murder before a Pretoria court on 15 February 2013. Barry Roux, leading Pistorius’ defence team argued that the paralympian was, for the purposes of the law, acting in self defence as he did not intend to act unlawfully.

The prosecution tried hard to depict the accused as a trigger-happy firearm fanatic, highlighting an incident in which Pistorius had fired a gun at a Johannesburg restaurant, putting a hole in the floor. Other witnesses alleged that Pistorius fired a gun through a car sunroof in 2012. Neighbours testified that the couple were heard having an argument on the day that Steenkamp was killed.

Towards the end of the trial, much of the focus was on Pistorius’s mental health. Doctors testified that Pistorius’ general anxiety disorder could have been a factor in the shooting, explaining that Pistorius’s upbringing and the amputation of his legs at a young age led him to feel threatened for most of his life. Psychiatric evaluation determined that he was not mentally incapacitated when he shot Steenkamp.

Judge Masipa held that much of the witnesses' evidence as unreliable and contradictory and took into account the fact that the event took place in the early hours of the morning. "Thankfully, the court is in a fortunate position...[to have] cell phone records" said Masipa, before giving a lengthy chronological breakdown of events.

She refused to draw inferences from messages between the deceased and the accused which implied that the couple had been going through conflict, saying "normal relationships are dynamic most of the time and human beings are fickle" . All of the prosecution's evidence of a fight, which would imply premeditated murder, was rejected by the judge.

Focusing on the question of intent, the judge had said "the question is: 'did the  accused see the possibility of the resultant death...The answer has to be no'".

The court will deal with the question of culpable homicide tomorrow.