The conclusion on Oscar Pistorius's muder trial is fast approaching as head judge Thokozile Matilde Masipa is set to deliver her final verdict on September 11, Reuters said.
Pistorius was accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day last year. Final arguments from both parties were submitted last August 7. As the case is about to be concluded, pundits are deeming that the Olympian would be going to prison on a guilty verdict.
In his Telegraph article, criminal law specialist and professor at Wits University in Johannesburg James Grant presented the possibilities of finding him convicted. He explained that the sprinter's poor testimonies and unclear statements, undoubtedly, would send himself to prison.
Apart from murder charges, Pistorius was also accused of illegal possession of firearms, as it was claimed that he purportedly fired in public places in separate occasions. Grant wrote, "The court is unlikely to accept this explanation and this will be damaging to his credibility on this charge, but also potentially on the discharge of the firearm that killed (Reeva) Steenkamp."
On the night when Steenkamp was shot, several neighbors have testified that they have heard screams of a couple fighting, contradicting the defense's own witnesses. Grant explains, "If we focus only on the most damaging evidence Pistorius faces, it must include the evidence of the four "ear-witnesses" who claim to have heard a woman's blood curdling screams. Most of these witnesses supplemented this by testifying that they heard gunshots thereafter. The problem with this evidence is the problem of proving a negative: that something did not happen. Just because these witnesses did not hear screams, does not show that there were none especially when others say that there were, these screams could simply have gone unheard."
Meanwhile, The Epoch Times also said that defense lawyer Barry Roux had tried to point the blame to South African police, and claimed that the police were guilty themselves of corruption. He said, "There's tardiness, they don't take the docket to court. Sometimes they don't take it because they sold it. Or sometimes they don't take it because they have misfiled it. The biggest problem in South Africa is that "there's a fair chance they [criminals] won't get caught - or if arrested, won't get tried."
Grant discounted this theory and said, "Without meaning to pre-empt the court, which has a better view of all the evidence and is eminently better qualified, Pistorius's defense does not seem to have done well."
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