Oscar Pistorius Trial: Week 9, Monday 30 June 2014

Law Professor Steve Tuscon predicts that Paralympian murder accused Oscar Pistorius’s month-long psychiatric assessment could indicate that the athlete had criminal capacity when he shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius is back in the North Gauteng High Court on Monday morning after he was sent to the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital in Pretoria as an outpatient for 30 days.

This was to determine his criminal capacity when he pulled the trigger and if he is indeed fit to stand trial.

The psychiatric report will be handed to the registrar of the court, the National Prosecuting Authority and athlete’s defence team.

Professor Tuscon also predicts that Pistorius would now be in a position to understand the court proceedings.

“I would suggest that the inquiry will probably find that he has capacity now to understand the proceedings and he probably had capacity at a time of the commission of the offence…because he’s given a clear and coherent version as to what happened.

The court would hand down a special verdict which is not guilty by reason of mental illness and that he is liable to spend a long time in a psychiatric hospital pending the decision of a judge in chambers.”

The athlete was ordered to undergo mental evaluation after an expert testified that he suffered from a general anxiety disorder and that it might have influenced his actions when he shot and killed Steenkamp.

The State contends he shot her during an argument.

The athlete was evaluated by four specialists as a day-patient.

On May 20, the court ruled that Pistorius’s evaluation would inquire if he was “at the time of the commission of the offence criminally responsible” and if he could appreciate the “wrongfulness of his actions and act according to that appreciation”.

Judge Thokozile Masipa said three psychiatrists and one clinical psychologist would evaluate Pistorius to determine whether his general anxiety disorder and his disability had an effect on him when he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp dead on Valentine’s Day last year.

His attorney Brian Webber said on Friday they were ready to go back to court on Monday.

“I anticipate that we are going to complete our evidence when the trial resumes so it will probably last for a couple of weeks,” Webber told Sapa.

Pistorius is charged with the murder of Steenkamp. He shot her dead through the locked door of his toilet in his Pretoria home. He has denied murder, saying he thought she was an intruder about to open the door and attack him.
The State contends he shot her during an argument.

He is also charged with three contraventions of the Firearms Control Act — one of illegal possession of ammunition and two of discharging a firearm in public. He has pleaded not guilty to these charges as well. – Additional reporting SAPA