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Sunday 14 September 2014

Judge: Pistorius negligent, did not murder


  • Oscar Pistorius not guilty of murder

    Pretoria, South Africa (CNN) - Oscar Pistorius did not commit murder the night he killed Reeva Steenkamp, a judge said Thursday.
    He did not intend to kill her, Judge Thokozile Masipa said.
    But his conduct was "negligent," she said before adjourning for the day, suggesting she will find the Olympian guilty of culpable homicide.


  • There is no minimum sentence for culpable homicide in South African law. It's up to the judge to decide.
    As he fired four bullets into the bathroom of his home in Pretoria on Valentine's Day last year, he did not foresee the "possibility that he would kill the person behind the door, let alone the deceased, as he thought she was in the bedroom at the time," Masipa said.
    Evidence suggests that Pistorius genuinely believed the person in the bathroom was an intruder, although that is irrelevant to the case, the judge said.
    Pistorius could have taken other actions when he thought there was an intruder, she said. "All the accused had to do was to pick up his cell phone to call security or the police," she said.
    "He could have run to the balcony and screamed in the same way he screamed after the incident," she added, noting that Pistorius called security after the incident and could have done so when he heard what he thought was an intruder.
    Judge: Pistorius' background no excuse
    Defense arguments that his upbringing "in a crime-riddled environment and in a home where the mother was paranoid and always carried a firearm" might explain his conduct that night, but "it does not excuse the conduct," Masipa said
    .

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