Encomium
After months of confessions and revelations in the trial of Oscar Pistorious over the shooting of his girlfriend – Reeva Steenkamp – on the February 14 last year, the blade runner was today (September 11) cleared of both premeditated and second-degree murder by the judge.
Judge Thokozile Masipa told the court “there are not enough facts” to support the prosecution case that the athlete intended to kill his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, though she admitted that Pistorious acted
“unlawfully” when he fired his gun.
She said the charge of premeditated murder relied on “circumstantial evidence” from the State, but that the state did not “prove beyond reasonable doubt”.
