Browse content similar to 12/09/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The athlete Oscar Pistorius is found guilty of culpable homicide over | :00:10. | :00:18. | |
the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. | :00:19. | :00:31. | |
The accused acted negligently when he fired shots into the toilet door. | :00:32. | :00:37. | |
There was very little room in which to manoeuvre. | :00:38. | :00:39. | |
I'm Karin Gianone live outside the court in Pretoria where | :00:40. | :00:47. | |
The court must decide whether Oscar Pistorius will be freed on bail | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
until his sentence. US Secretary of State John Kerry | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
heads to Turkey, seeking more support for action against Islamic | :00:58. | :00:59. | |
State militants in Iraq and Syria. The South African athlete | :01:00. | :01:12. | |
Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of culpable homicide, also | :01:13. | :01:19. | |
known as manslaughter, for shooting The judge said the athlete had acted | :01:20. | :01:20. | |
negligently when he used his gun but she cleared him of murder, saying | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
the prosecution had failed to prove Thank you. We are waiting for | :01:27. | :01:50. | |
proceedings to resume again. It has been a morning in which we have | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
heard a decision on every single charge which Oscar Pistorius faced. | :01:56. | :02:03. | |
He faced the lesser firearms charges and then the murder charge, | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
premeditated charge of Reeva Steenkamp. Judge Masipa said he was | :02:08. | :02:16. | |
not guilty of murder, but has convicted him of culpable homicide. | :02:17. | :02:19. | |
Let's take you back to the exact words she used earlier. Mr | :02:20. | :02:27. | |
Pistorius, please stand up. The unanimous decision of this court is | :02:28. | :02:42. | |
the following. On current one, murder the accused is found not | :02:43. | :02:48. | |
guilty and is discharged. Instead, she is found guilty of culpable | :02:49. | :02:58. | |
homicide. We are waiting the continuing our -- | :02:59. | :03:08. | |
arguments over whether Oscar Pistorius will be granted bail or | :03:09. | :03:10. | |
not. He has been on bail for the last 18 months and been living at | :03:11. | :03:15. | |
his uncle's house. The defence is our giving you should be able to | :03:16. | :03:21. | |
stay on bail in that situation until the sentencing hearing begins. The | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
prosecution has argued that he is now a convicted criminal and should | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
not be granted bail for this very serious offence of culpable | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
homicide. With me is a former High Court judge. What have you made of | :03:34. | :03:45. | |
what we have seen today? I was surprised as far as the finding is | :03:46. | :03:49. | |
concerned on the culpable homicide case. When you deal with a | :03:50. | :03:56. | |
reasonable person, that reasonable person must find himself in the same | :03:57. | :04:03. | |
position. You would say to yourself, a reasonable person, who thought | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
there was a criminal behind the door and who was at risk, unless you can | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
see that you would definitely not have fired the shots, you would have | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
to give Oscar Pistorius reasonable doubt. In that sense, I think she is | :04:20. | :04:29. | |
wrong. But she was correct as far as the law was concerned, just the | :04:30. | :04:37. | |
application of the effect. He must have known there was somebody behind | :04:38. | :04:42. | |
the door, but she did not see any of the evidence before her as being | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
enough to kill. There was no such proof. She rejected the seat's | :04:48. | :04:58. | |
evidence. -- state's evidence. For that, she was left with evidence of | :04:59. | :05:07. | |
the accused. She was in a difficult position that she accepted his | :05:08. | :05:14. | |
evidence as far as the subject of contention was concerned, that is | :05:15. | :05:16. | |
why she found him not guilty. She therefore find, as effect, that the | :05:17. | :05:26. | |
accused was facing a great, was freezing somebody on the inside, was | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
running the risk that the person could come out, was running the risk | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
that he could kill him. To be so subjective is a problem because they | :05:36. | :05:43. | |
fear must be considered. Again, because the onus is not on him, she | :05:44. | :05:50. | |
could say, I do not accept this, but there is a reasonable possibility. | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
Then she would have acquitted him. To say that a reasonable man would | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
stand there and would face exactly the same, can you say that a | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
reasonable man would not have done that? He would have been scared, he | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
would have faced someone, probably a criminal, so the same facts would | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
apply and that is why she would have to be very correct in her approach. | :06:17. | :06:23. | |
But I must emphasise, because she has made a good judgement, she has | :06:24. | :06:29. | |
given a good judgement, she has measured everything she has said. | :06:30. | :06:35. | |
Thank you very much for the moment. What exactly does this charge of | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
culpable homicide mean for Oscar Pistorius? My colleague looks at the | :06:41. | :06:48. | |
applications are being found guilty. Oscar Pistorius, shortly after he | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
had killed Reeva Steenkamp. From the very beginning, he insisted it was a | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
terrible mistake, that he and Reeva seen arriving at his home a few | :07:00. | :07:06. | |
hours earlier, they were very much in love. I was trying to protect | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
Reeva. When she went to bed that night, she felt loved. In court, | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
Oscar Pistorius maintained that he shot through his bathroom door, | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
convinced an intruder had broken into his home. His grief and regret | :07:21. | :07:29. | |
were compelling. I sat and cried, I don't know how long, I don't know | :07:30. | :07:38. | |
how long I was there for. She wasn't breathing. Oscar Pistorius's defence | :07:39. | :07:46. | |
made much of the athlete's vulnerability, of a disabled man | :07:47. | :07:53. | |
confronting a perceived threat. His capacity to what the Burgess | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
produces is pure, he could easily be pushed over. When exposed to a | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
threat, Mr Pistorius is more likely to respond with a fight response | :08:04. | :08:10. | |
rather than a flight response. The prosecution sought to show that | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
there is a darker side to Oscar Pistorius, his obsession with guns, | :08:16. | :08:18. | |
his quick temper and it questioned how the athlete could have made such | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
a terrible mistake. When you shouted and screamed at | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
Beaver to phone the police, she was a 3 metres away from you. And she | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
never uttered a word. That is correct. It is not probable. At the | :08:34. | :08:39. | |
heart of this case was the question of what Oscar Pistorius was thinking | :08:40. | :08:42. | |
when he shot four times through the toilet door. I heard this noise and | :08:43. | :08:48. | |
I thought it was somebody coming out to attack me so I fired. Your | :08:49. | :08:54. | |
defence has now changed from putative self-defence to involuntary | :08:55. | :09:04. | |
action. I do not understand the law, I can only reply to what I am asked | :09:05. | :09:11. | |
to stop today's verdict suggests that the judge believed Pistorius's | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
explanation. I believe that the judge was speed by his demeanour on | :09:18. | :09:25. | |
the stand. The judge was Swede by evidence procured by the defence, | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
including the psychological impact his childhood may have had on him, | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
as well as the experts were brought in by the defence. This is almost | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
certainly the best verdict Oscar Pistorius could have hoped for. It | :09:40. | :09:42. | |
means the prosecution failed to convince the judge that the athlete | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
meant to kill anybody. But it still meant the judge found him criminally | :09:47. | :09:54. | |
negligent. Some of Reeva's Steenkamp's friends have already | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
criticised the verdicts. It does not surprise me. It is pretty much what | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
I expected from the outset. He can afford the best possible defence and | :10:05. | :10:10. | |
private investigators to support his case. Oscar Pistorius has yet to be | :10:11. | :10:18. | |
sentenced. A prison term is very likely, up to 15 years. But the | :10:19. | :10:21. | |
judge has the option to fine him and freedom. -- | :10:22. | :10:30. | |
let's discuss this with the former High Court judge. If you were | :10:31. | :10:38. | |
sitting before this court, and presiding over this case, what now | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
would you be looking at in terms of sentencing? There are two sets of | :10:43. | :10:49. | |
facts that one could consider. There were aggravating circumstances, and | :10:50. | :10:57. | |
mitigating circumstances. Let's look at the aggravating circumstances. It | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
is arguable that he should not have fired the shots. Subjectively, as | :11:03. | :11:10. | |
far as blameworthy business is concerned, that is a proposition the | :11:11. | :11:19. | |
judge is facing. As far as the fact that he did not ensure that his | :11:20. | :11:22. | |
girlfriend was still in bed, he just walked out, the answer to that is | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
there was no reason to suspect that she was not in the bed next to him. | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
She would have to follow that direction and those arguments. As | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
far as mitigating is concerned, you are again faced with a situation | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
where he found himself in a precarious position as far as safety | :11:44. | :11:50. | |
is concerned, with his shortcomings, with his psychological problems, you | :11:51. | :11:53. | |
need to take into account that blameworthy this -- his blameworthy | :11:54. | :12:00. | |
nurse is not as much as it would have been without these | :12:01. | :12:07. | |
psychological issues. Taking these facts into account, that he has got | :12:08. | :12:13. | |
these problems, the judge actually adjourned because he started crying, | :12:14. | :12:20. | |
not every person accused of murder sits crying in court, you need to | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
attach weight to that. Let's get to the culpable homicide matter. If you | :12:26. | :12:32. | |
look at that, the sentence could be anything from a suspended sentence | :12:33. | :12:42. | |
to a long-term sentence, such as 18 years. But because of all the | :12:43. | :12:49. | |
mitigating circumstances, I suspect that she would impose a sentence of | :12:50. | :12:56. | |
about seven years effectively. Would that be seven years to serve, or | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
eligible for parole? Eligible for parole. And one third, you get off | :13:01. | :13:10. | |
that automatically. About five years. Once you have served some | :13:11. | :13:18. | |
part of it, he will be eligible for that. As far as the firearm | :13:19. | :13:29. | |
conviction is concerned, he did in danger the life of people, so that | :13:30. | :13:39. | |
must be accounted for. The court could impose a whole sentence or see | :13:40. | :13:47. | |
in mitigating circumstances, I am not going to impose the maximum | :13:48. | :13:53. | |
sentence. Then, of course, she can decide that the sentences would run | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
concurrently. So he would not go double the time to jail. And being | :14:01. | :14:07. | |
first offender, that is more than likely that that is what she would | :14:08. | :14:15. | |
do. Anything in the back of her mind, she must feel a lot of | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
sympathy for him. I'm not saying she should have been influenced by that, | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
she has two exercise depression, but she is a human being. Fascinating to | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
get your thoughts. Thank you very much. There are so many murders each | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
year, so many murder cases and killings in South Africa, why has | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
this murder trial attracted so much attention? Why has been this out of | :14:42. | :14:47. | |
focus by so many broadcasters from all around the world? Let's just | :14:48. | :14:54. | |
remind ourselves about the level of prestige and fame that Oscar | :14:55. | :15:03. | |
Pistorius had before the events in February 2014 when he killed Reeva | :15:04. | :15:09. | |
Steenkamp, hot and inspiration and stripper star he was for many. | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
Oscar Pistorius was a man who changed the opinions of millions. | :15:15. | :15:25. | |
They may call me the Blade Runner but I just Oscar. And I was born | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
without bones in the bottom part my legs, my parents made a difficult | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
decision to amputate them. Few people know him as well as this | :15:36. | :15:40. | |
Olympian and long-term training partner. I had a lot of incidents | :15:41. | :15:48. | |
when he hugged me. I cannot count them all. He is a gentle man. He is | :15:49. | :15:55. | |
someone who will stick to his words. He was chasing a dream, a big dream. | :15:56. | :16:01. | |
That dream began at school when he was given carbon fibre prospect and | :16:02. | :16:09. | |
began to run. It was here in March 2004 when a teenage Oscar Pistorius | :16:10. | :16:13. | |
after just two months of training with blades, showed how good he was. | :16:14. | :16:19. | |
He ran the 100 metres in just over 11 seconds, a new world record. | :16:20. | :16:29. | |
50-50 and rotate. Confidence was no problem as he told the BBC in 2007. | :16:30. | :16:35. | |
I put in more hours, I eat better, I train better and I train better than | :16:36. | :16:39. | |
the other guys. He is flying away from all of them. 21 seconds. My | :16:40. | :16:46. | |
goodness. Paralympic gold medals followed and by now he had become a | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
brand. They told me I would never walk. A man with no legs cannot run. | :16:52. | :17:00. | |
Anything else you want to tell me? At London, he became the first | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
amputee to run at the Olympics but why now the stories were also | :17:05. | :17:07. | |
emerging of another side to his character. They did O'Sullivan has | :17:08. | :17:13. | |
known him since he was a boy. I knew a roommate of his and he told me he | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
had to move out of the room because Oscar Pistorius had gone hysterical | :17:20. | :17:22. | |
on the phone and he was shouting and screaming. He was talking to a | :17:23. | :17:27. | |
girlfriend and a man who had taken this girl out on an overseas trip. I | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
have the story confirmed by other athletes who said it was terrible to | :17:32. | :17:39. | |
which is, this incredible meltdown. The athlete later insisted he had | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
left Oscar Pistorius is room on medical grounds, but the rumour | :17:45. | :17:50. | |
persisted. He seemed to present a different persona. We heard about | :17:51. | :17:54. | |
the fast cars, how he was an insomniac and he used to go out on | :17:55. | :17:57. | |
the shooting range in the middle of the night. There were more and more | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
of these incidents which sold him to be aggressive and volatile. There | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
was controversy on the track. After losing in the 200 metres final in | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
London to a resilient, he suggested that his rival had cheated. | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
TRANSLATION: There was nothing wrong with my blades. It was difficult for | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
me to stand beside him after all of that. He saw me at the Olympic | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
Village and refused to talk to me. But the man who bit come -- has | :18:25. | :18:30. | |
become the new poster boy of her Olympian sport said Oscar Pistorius | :18:31. | :18:32. | |
was capable of surprising generosity. In the final in London | :18:33. | :18:39. | |
he said just before, do you mind if I pray for you? He was a nice | :18:40. | :18:44. | |
person. It was great to be there. It is a crazy situation. He made the | :18:45. | :18:53. | |
breakthrough in Paralympic sport. At the University for his training was | :18:54. | :18:59. | |
based, a new generation of hopefuls remain loyal. He is still an | :19:00. | :19:07. | |
inspiration for me. I lost my leg, I saw him doing so well. He was a role | :19:08. | :19:15. | |
model of mine. As an as like superhuman -- athletes superhuman, | :19:16. | :19:22. | |
as a man, flawed. He will now be identified with events away from the | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
track. The ultimate fall from grace of sport is complete. | :19:28. | :19:34. | |
We thought that I now we would be seeing court receding is resuming | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
again. We are still waiting. Judge Tarah Jones called a lunch | :19:39. | :19:49. | |
adjournment. -- the judge. We will go back inside to bring you all the | :19:50. | :19:55. | |
latest developments. At the moment, they are discussing the issue of | :19:56. | :19:59. | |
Dale or a renewal of bail conditions. -- of bail. It centres | :20:00. | :20:09. | |
on whether he will be allowed to continue living at his uncle's | :20:10. | :20:12. | |
residence of whether he will have to spend the time before his sentence | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
in custody. It could be that he walks out of court this afternoon | :20:19. | :20:24. | |
free on bail. But we do not know. The judge is considering the options | :20:25. | :20:28. | |
at the moment and she has heard arguments from and the state. The | :20:29. | :20:34. | |
charge that he has been here for six months spacing was that of | :20:35. | :20:36. | |
premeditated murder of Reeva Steenkamp. -- facing. Let your mind | :20:37. | :20:44. | |
is a swap the prosecution failed to prove. Here are the key moments. -- | :20:45. | :20:51. | |
let's remind you what the prosecution. I heard a female | :20:52. | :20:58. | |
screaming fearfully. She was very very scared of something. Something | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
that was threatening her life moments before those shots went. | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
That made me know her life was threatened severely in the house. | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
That is why she shouted. I have been upset by you for two days now. I am | :21:13. | :21:19. | |
so upset. I cant get that day back. I am scared of you sometimes and how | :21:20. | :21:22. | |
you snapper needs. How you will react to me. -- how you snapped at | :21:23. | :21:33. | |
me. You should not get into trouble. This should not get into the media. | :21:34. | :21:37. | |
You were very concerned about it getting into the media. I was | :21:38. | :21:42. | |
concerned about both of our futures, my lady. It exploded. Am I correct? | :21:43. | :21:52. | |
That is correct. You know that the same happened to the head of the | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
team can? Take a look. I will take responsibility but I will not look | :21:59. | :22:05. | |
at the picture which wants me. I do not have to look at a picture. I was | :22:06. | :22:11. | |
there! I turned around. I said to her to get down and phone the | :22:12. | :22:17. | |
police. I made my way as quickly as I could to the wall of the bedroom. | :22:18. | :22:21. | |
Just before the entrance to the closet. I do not understand why you | :22:22. | :22:26. | |
would not make sure that she was fine before you stormed off. I was | :22:27. | :22:32. | |
in a panic. I thought was to get between the perceived danger and | :22:33. | :22:37. | |
Reeva Steenkamp as quickly as I could. Why did you fire? I heard a | :22:38. | :22:44. | |
noise coming from inside the toilet. I interpreted it as someone coming | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
out to attack me, my lady. You just started shooting, accidentally your | :22:50. | :22:53. | |
fingers pulled the trigger? I started shooting at that point, my | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
lady. At the intruder. At the door. In your mind at the intruders. What | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
I perceived as an intruder. It was not accidental. I am getting | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
confused with this accidentally and not accidentally. Your version is so | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
improbable that nobody would ever think it is reasonably and possibly | :23:16. | :23:24. | |
true. It is so improbable. There we are. The key moments of the | :23:25. | :23:27. | |
prosecution case. The lead counsel for the state Gerrie Nel becoming | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
one of the names to become a household name throughout the course | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
of this trial. Barry Roux, the lead counsel for the defence was the | :23:37. | :23:39. | |
other one and we saw him robustly trying to defend Oscar Pistorius. He | :23:40. | :23:46. | |
tried to make it clear to the judge that he thought Oscar Pistorius was | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
a man that had been significantly affect by his disability and was a | :23:51. | :23:54. | |
vulnerable person. Let's show you some of the highlights of the | :23:55. | :23:59. | |
defence case. They tried to counter the accusation of premeditated | :24:00. | :24:05. | |
murder. My lady, whether she was able to make any noise depends on | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
two factors, firstly the sequence of shots. If I am wrong and the shot to | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
the head was the first one, then obviously she could not have made | :24:15. | :24:17. | |
any sound at all. If the shots were fired rapidly, these could have | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
easily been discharged within the space of four seconds. I think it | :24:23. | :24:26. | |
highly unlikely that she would have made or have been able to call out. | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
I would like to apologise. There is not a moment and has not been a | :24:33. | :24:38. | |
moment since this tragedy happened that I have not thought about her | :24:39. | :24:44. | |
family. I wake up every morning and they are at the first people I think | :24:45. | :24:47. | |
God and I pray for. I cant imagine the pain and sorrow and emptiness | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
that I have caused you and your family. I was simply trying to | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
protect river. When she went to bed that night she felt loved. When you | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
were standing with your firearm pointing to the toilet door what | :25:05. | :25:12. | |
emotions did you experience? I was terrified. I feared for my life. I | :25:13. | :25:23. | |
was scared. I was thinking about what could happen to me and to | :25:24. | :25:33. | |
Reeva. I was extremely fearful. I was overcome with a sense of terror | :25:34. | :25:46. | |
and vulnerability. There is a card and a message. Roses are red, | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
violets are blue and I love you. She signed it with her name and a smiley | :25:51. | :26:00. | |
face and kisses. We have seen the court rise because | :26:01. | :26:05. | |
the judge has come back in. We will take you live to proceedings at the | :26:06. | :26:06. | |
High Court | :26:07. | :26:08. |