South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. With over 59 million people, it is the world's 23rd-most populous nation and covers an area of 1 million square kilometers. South Africa has three capital cities: executive Pretoria, judicial Bloemfontein and legislative Cape Town. The largest city is Johannesburg. South Africa is a developing country. It has been classified by the World Bank as a newly industrialized country, with the second-largest economy in Africa, and the 33rd-largest in the world. The country is a middle power in international affairs; it maintains significant regional influence and is a member of both the Commonwealth of Nations and G20. However, crime, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed and living on less than US$1.25 a day. The Republic of South Africa is a constitutional state, with a supreme Constitution and a Bill of Rights. All South African laws must be consistent with the Constitution. South Africa has a mixed legal system - a hybrid of Roman Dutch civilian law, English common law, customary law and religious personal law. In trails in South Africa there was no jury, the jury system in South Africa being abolished during apartheid. Without further ado, let us hop into today’s Crime Story.
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius was born on November 22nd, 1986, as the second of three children in Sandton, South Africa. Oscar is born fibular hemimelia which means he was born without the fibula bone and he was missing the outside of both feet. When Oscar was months old his legs were amputated halfway between the knee and foot. Oscar grew up being gifted at sports, that even a coach did not know he was missing his legs until six months later. After a knee injury in 2003, Oscar was fitted for his first running blades and was introduced to track and only a year later in 2004 he captured the gold medal in the 200-meter race at the 2004 Athens Paralympics. Following his win in Athens, Oscar competed in several races in South Africa against able-bodied athletes. Oscar’s artificial legs became a source of controversy. In 2007, the International Association of Athletic Foundations (IAAF) banned Pistorius from competing, stating that his artificial legs gave him an unfair advantage over able-bodied athletes. Pistorius immediately appealed the ruling, and in May 2008 the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the IAAF decision. After missing the cut for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, a determined Pistorius focused his training on making the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. In spring 2012, Oscar realized his ultimate dream when he qualified for the 400-meter race at the London Olympics. While he was eventually eliminated in the semifinal round, he secured his place in history by becoming the first amputee athlete to compete in track events at the Olympics. “It's just an unbelievable experience," Pistorius said shortly after his first Olympic race. "I found myself smiling on the starting blocks, which is very rare."
Reeva Steenkamp was born in Cape Town, South Africa on August 19th, 1983. She had two older half-siblings from her father and mother's respective previous marriages. After high school she studied law at the University of Port Elizabeth she graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 2005. After university Steenkamp worked as a paralegal and as a model. She applied to the bar in late 2011 and hoped to be a qualified legal advocate by the age of 30. Reeva had worked as a model since the age of 14 and in fact she was the first South African face of Avon. She has worked as a TV presenter and appeared on Reality Television postmortem. Reeva was an avid horse rider until an accident in which she had to learn how to walk again. In November 2012, Reeva and Oscar started dating.
There are varying reports of Oscar and Reeva’s relationship. Reeva even tweeted 3 days before her death that she “woke up in a safe home and not everyone got to this morning”. Even though there was not physical abuse in their relationship in the trail psychological abuse by Oscar came to light. Oscar and Reeva only dated for three months. Their relationship was tabloid fodder from the start, with Pistorius' ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor claiming that Reeva was the reason for their split. Oscar allegedly abused ex- girlfriends with Samantha Taylor stating that Oscar left her scarred and bruised and used to lock her in his house with no food. On one occasion, she became so scared of his anger that she hid his gun from him. Reeva seemed to have had healthy relationships before Oscar and was still friends with her ex’s which angered Oscar. The pair's relationship was as volatile. In text messages revealed during Pistorius' court case, Reeva had told Oscar that she was scared of him. In one message, she wrote that she was "scared of you sometimes and how u snap at me and of how you will react to me." In another, she mentioned being "attacked" by Oscar and referred to him as "the one person I deserve protection from. "Reeva's mother, June Steenkamp, has claimed that her daughter was on the verge of ending things with Oscar when she was killed, and that the two had not yet been physically intimate. "She had confided to me that she hadn't slept with him. They'd shared a bed, but she was scared to take the relationship to that level," June Steenkamp told The Times. "She wouldn't want to sleep with Oscar if she wasn't sure. I believe their relationship was coming to an end. In her heart of hearts, she didn't think it was making either of them happy."
On the night of February 13th, 2013, in Oscar’s Pretoria home, around 7pm Oscar and Reeva had dinner before watching TV and they fell asleep between 9pm to 10pm. In the early hours of the morning Oscar woke up and Reeva asked him "Can't you sleep, my baba?" he told her that he could not sleep and brought in two fans from the balcony, then he said he heard a noise from the bathroom. Oscar said he heard the bathroom window sliding open and believed that an intruder, or intruders, had entered the bathroom through a window which was not fitted with burglar bars. Oscar said he grabbed his firearm on his stumps (meaning he did not have is prosthetic legs on) and told Reeva, who he thought was still in bed, to call the police. Oscar could see the bathroom window was open and toilet door closed. He said he did not know whether the intruders were outside on a ladder or in the bathroom. He had his firearm in front of him, he heard a movement inside the toilet and thought whoever was inside was coming out to attack him. 'Before I knew it, I had fired four shots at the door,' he said. Oscar said he went back to the bedroom and noticed that Reeva was not there on the bed.
Oscar told the court, "At that point, the first thing I thought was maybe she got down onto the floor like I told her to, maybe she was just scared... I can't remember what I said but I was trying to talk out to her. It was upon that time, my Lady, that it first dawned upon me that it could be Reeva that was in the bathroom or in the toilet. I jumped out of the other side of the bed and I ran my hands along the curtains to see that she wasn't hiding. I didn't want to believe it was Reeva in the toilet, I was so scared that someone was coming in to attack us. I made my way inside the bathroom... I tried to grab the handle, rip open the door. I pushed the door to open and it was locked. I ran back to the room, I opened the curtains, opened the doors and shouted from the balcony for help. I screamed, 'Help, help, help.' I screamed for somebody to help me. I put my prosthetic legs on. I ran as far as I could back to the bathroom, I ran into the door. It did not move at all. I tried to kick the door but nothing happened. "Oscar told the court how he went back to the bedroom, picked up a cricket bat and started hitting the toilet door in a bid to open it. He said he hit the door about three times and then managed to pull a plank out of it. Eventually he found the key on the floor and unlocked the door. He said that he “sat over Reeva and I cried, I don't know how long... I don't know how long I was there for," he told the court. He then carried her downstairs, where he was met by neighbors. Oscar acknowledged that he shot Reeva but said that he mistook her for an intruder. Oscar Pistorius was taken into police custody and was formally charged with murder in a Pretoria court on February 15, 2013.
The bail hearing was held February 19, 2013. During the hearing, both prosecution and defense said that Pistorius had fired four shots through a locked toilet door, hitting Steenkamp, who was inside, three times. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel claimed that Pistorius had put on his prosthetic legs, walked across his bedroom to the bathroom, and intentionally shot Reeva through the door. Nel argued that the time required for this process was sufficient to establish the alleged murder as premeditated. Oscar said that he had thought Reeva was in the bed, and that the person in the toilet was an intruder. On the first day of the bail hearing, Magistrate Nair ruled that for the purposes of the bail hearing Pistorius was charged with a Schedule 6 criminal offence, which relates to serious crimes including premeditated murder and requires exceptional circumstances for release on bail. After determining that Oscar was not a flight risk, Oscar paid the $113,000 USD and returned back in training in June 2013 noticeably thinner and a full-grown beard.
Oscar’s trail started on March 3rd, 2014, the trial was assigned to Judge Thokozile Masipa, who appointed two assessors, Janette Henzen du Toit and Themba Mazibuko, to help her evaluate the case and reach a verdict. A month before a High Court in Pretoria judge determined that the entire trial could be broadcast live via audio and that parts of the trial could be broadcast live via television. The opening statement of prosecutor Gerrie Nel noted that the murder case against Oscar Pistorius was based largely on circumstantial evidence, as there were no eyewitnesses to the incident. Contrary to statements made in the bail hearing, the prosecution's case in the trial was that Pistorius was not wearing his prosthetic legs at the time of the shooting, or when he broke the toilet door down afterwards. In his opening statement read out by Pistorius family lawyer Kenny Oldwage, Oscar said he believed Reeva was in bed when he shot at what he thought was an intruder behind the toilet door, and that he had spoken to her in bed shortly beforehand. He admitted to killing Reeva Steenkamp but denied the charge of murder. One of the main moments from the trail that was broadcast around the world was when Reeva’s autopsy report was read aloud, Oscar threw up in court.
The court's verdict, which was arrived at unanimously by the judge and her two assessors, was delivered by Judge Masipa over two days, with the formal verdict delivered on September 12, 2014. Judge Masipa said the state had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Pistorius was guilty of premeditated murder and also ruled out dolus eventualis, i.e., common murder. However, Judge Masipa said culpable homicide was a competent verdict, i.e., a lesser offence that is a possible alternative verdict. Culpable homicide, defined as "the unlawful negligent killing of a human being”. On 21 October 2014, Pistorius received a prison sentence of a maximum of five years for culpable homicide. In December 2015, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the culpable homicide verdict and found Pistorius guilty of murder, believing Oscar should have known that firing his gun would have killed whoever was behind the door, regardless of who he thought it was. On 6 July 2016 Judge Masipa sentenced Pistorius to six years in prison for murder, although the prosecution has called for 15 years, the minimum prison sentence in South Africa for murder. Judge Masipa argued that Oscar had already served 12 months in prison for the culpable homicide conviction and was remorseful for his killing. In November 2017, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal added 9 years to the sentence, for a total of 15 years, following a government appeal. Pistorius will be eligible for parole in 2023. Oscar Pistorius and his defense team are appealing this new ruling.
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