After grilling several witnesses and going through months of court proceedings, paralympian Oscar Pistorius can now heave a sigh of relief as he has been cleared of the murder charges, Thursday.
Pistorius was arrested and charged last year over allegations of murdering his long-time girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013. The year-long trial came to an end after South African judge Thokozile Masipa did not find Psitorius guilty of the murder.
"Clearly he did not subjectively foresee this as a possibility that he would kill the person behind the door, let alone the deceased as he thought she was in the bedroom," Masipa told the court, reports Reuters.
Prior to announcing the verdict, Judge Masipa rejected the claims made by the defense about how the 27-year-old sprinter could not distinguish between right and wrong before the shooting. She also pointed out that the testimony of Pistorius had contradictions.
The judge also denied the possibility of self-defense stating that Pistorius "armed himself with his own firearm and approached what he thought was danger with the firearm ready to fire. It would be absurd to assume he was prepared to hit the intruder over the head with it as he could have easily used a cricket bat," reports Newsweek. She also rejected that Pistorius's actions could meet the criteria for murder with "transferable malice" (the readiness to kill another human being).
According to the judge, Pistorius was a "poor witness" who was vague and belligerent on the witness stand. She also said that he did not show honesty to the court when he denied any intention to shoot on the night of the killing. She further rejected the argument made by the defense that this was because he was under stress and on medication, reports The Los Angeles Times. This does not mean that Pistorius must be guilty of premeditation, she found he knew right from wrong and was acting consciously when he took the gun and approached the bathroom.
The firing of four shots by Pistorius was a "matter of conjecture," stated the judge.
