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Fan Forum Star
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 133,085
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 It may well be that he's only trying to save face with this implementation of instant replay.
But I really do thing it's the right way to go regardless, you know?
When you have incidents like the Suarez biting thing, or anything similar, I think it would help to have access to the footage.
Meanwhile:
Quote:
Pistorius was not mentally ill when he shot Reeva Steenkamp, experts find
Paralympian accused of murdering his girlfriend on Valentine's Day can be held criminally responsible, court is told
Oscar Pistorius was not suffering from a mental illness on the night he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and can be held criminally responsible, a psychiatric report said on Monday.
The conclusion of a panel of mental health experts following their observation of the Paralympian was revealed at the long-awaited resumption of his "blockbuster" trial at the high court in Pretoria, South Africa.
Pistorius, 27, is accused of murdering Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, after a furious argument on Valentine's Day last year. He denies the charge and claims he shot four times through a locked bathroom door after hearing a noise and assuming she was a burglar.
The trial, which is being followed by millions of people around the world, came to an abrupt halt in May when Pistorius was sent for psychiatric observation following an expert witness's testimony that he suffered an anxiety disorder.
When it restarted on Monday, an evaluation that had taken 30 days at Weskoppies psychiatric hospital was disposed of in just a few minutes. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said: "Mr Pistorius did not suffer from a mental defect or mental illness at the time of the commission of the offence that would have rendered him criminally not responsible for the offences charged."
He was reading from two reports prepared by a psychologist and three psychiatrists. "Mr Pistorius was capable of appreciating the wrongfulness of his act," Nel added.
Sitting in the dock, Pistorius, wearing a charcoal suit and white shirt, stared straight ahead as Nel briefly quoted from the reports. His defence counsel, Barry Roux, said his team agreed with the reports but asked for more time to review them.
The findings came as no surprise to either side. The defence had appeared taken aback when the prosecution called for Pistorius to undergo psychiatric tests after witness Dr Merryll Vorster testified that he has a "generalised anxiety disorder" that could have been a factor in the killing. It opposed the application and Pistorius himself, speaking to reporters, dismissed it as a "joke".
For its part, the prosecution, which has repeatedly accused Pistorius of failing to take responsibility for his actions, is understood to have wanted any hint of an excuse about his mental state taken off the table. In this its gambit was successful, albeit at the cost of a lengthy hiatus.
When the defence resumed on Monday – day 34 of the trial – attention switched from Pistorius's mind to his body. Clearly uncomfortable, the "blade runner" was asked to sit on a bench and remove his prosthetic limbs to allow judge Thokozile Masipa and her two legal assessors to inspect his stumps and how the skin moves on them. The demonstration was not visible in the public gallery or on TV.
Defence witness Gerald Versfeld, an orthopaedic surgeon who amputated Pistorius's lower legs when he was 11 months old, testified that the Olympic athlete is wobbly on his stumps and experiences "severe pain" when standing on them. Pistorius was born without fibulas, the slender bones that run from below the knee to the ankle.
"On his stumps Oscar Pistorius has serious difficulty walking or standing without support," Versfeld said. "On his stumps he is seriously vulnerable in a dangerous situation with a severely impaired ability to flee, severely impaired ability to ward off danger, without a weapon, and in danger of falling should he put the stump down incorrectly."
Versfeld also read out a statement from Pistorius that said: "The dog can knock me over, in fact the dog has knocked me over many times."
The defence argues that Pistorius could not have smashed down the toilet door with a cricket bat while on his stumps, as the prosecution claims, when trying to reach Steenkamp moments after shooting her.
During cross-examination, Nel suggested that Pistorius had overstated his immobility and that he had in fact moved around on his stumps, carrying a pistol without falling, before and after Steenkamp's death.
The defence next called Ivan Lin, an engineer and acoustics expert, to testify if Pistorius's neighbours could have differentiated between a man and a woman screaming.
Earlier in the trial, state witnesses said they heard a woman's "bloodcurdling screams" the night Pistorius shot Steenkamp. The defence contends that Pistorius sounds like a woman when he screams.
"Although typically one can differentiate a male and female scream, one cannot say it reliably without exception," Lin told the court.
He cast doubt on the state witnesses who lived 177 metres from Pistorius and testified that they heard a woman screaming. Lin said it is "very unlikely" that people living at such a distance from the house could "hear the screams let alone interpret the sound source reliably".
It is thought the defence will call one or two more witnesses before resting its case. Both sides will then require a few more weeks to compile their written submissions before presenting them to the court. They will return to court to answer final questions on their arguments.
South Africa does not have jury trials, so a verdict will be delivered by the judge. Pistorius faces a maximum of 25 years in prison if convicted of murder.
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I think that was his last Hail Mary.
I suppose the judge could always surprise us all, but I think it's becoming increasingly clear that the only probable verdict is a guilty one.
I do find it interesting that people living up to 177 metres away have testified that they heard the victim scream, though. I guess people will do a lot to get their 15 minutes, huh?
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 Sunny
"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." avie by Jessie
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