Will Oscar Pistorius be prosecuted? That’s the key question as the Paralympian spends his second night as a free man.
He was released yesterday on R1 million bail and as lawyers prepare for the trial to start in June, the focus is now on the legal technicalities of the case.
The icon of paralympic sport is accused of shooting dead his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp.
It has all the elements of a soap opera except for one thing, it’s real and it’s happening and it reminds one of the headline-grabbing O.J. Simpson murder trial.
Pistorius’s week long bail hearing was unusual and yesterday, there were mixed feelings, as the man known as the Blade runner, was released on bail.
This after the defense convinced the court, Pistorius was not a flight risk and did not have the propensity for violence.
The real drama will unfold once the trial gets underway.
So far, the case has got off to a shaky start for the prosecution
Legal minds are already painting different scenarios. “Once bail is out of the way, pre-meditation becomes irrelevant. Murder in South Africa does not require pre-meditation, it’s quiet simply defined as intentional unlawful killing of another human being, so it does not have to be pre-meditated unlawful killing of another human being,” says Wits School of Law’s Dr. James Grant.
The question is, will the courts convict Pistorius on murder or culpable homicide or is the evidence, merely circumstantial? Law Expert William Booth says: “Many cases are successfully prosecuted on circumstantial evidence alone but one has to consider that there’s been much said about the crime scene and it has been trampled on and that could affect the eventual evidential value of this circumstantial evidence. A crime scene has to be cordoned off immediately and must not be tampered with.”
So far, the case has got off to a shaky start for the prosecution. This after it emerged the investigating officer, Hilton Botha, is facing seven counts of attempted murder.
This is a major blow for the SAPS, but the National Commissioner acted swiftly, replacing Botha with Lieutenant-General Vinesh Moonoo.
The crime scene may also have been compromised. It’s understood that visitors and police trampled all over the house. This may have led to vital forensic evidence being destroyed.
Experts though believe the prosecution still has a watertight case. Institute for security studies Dr. Johan Burger says: “The investigating officer, Warrant Officer Botha did make some basic mistakes, for example not wearing prescribed equipment on his feet and so on,when he first entered the crime scene. But, apart from that, I think the crime scene experts did take charge of the crime scene and proper procedures were followed and I think most of those results are still forthcoming and will be used by the prosecution when the criminal trial starts.”
Since his release, the media has been dogging him, some camping the night outside his uncle’s Waterkloof home in Pretoria.
The media have turned it into make shift newsrooms, complete with emergency supplies. Fast food vendors are doing a bristling trade.
Security has been tightened at Pistorius’s Silverwoods Estate home. He’s expected to report at the Brooklyn police station on Monday as part of his stringent bail conditions.
– By Njanji Chauke
