Page 3 of Oscar Pistorius is thought to have shot his girlfriend dead.

I hope his charming boyish charm doesn't get him off. To me  I think he did it knowing very well she was his target.

Quote:
I hope his charming boyish charm doesn't get him off. To me I think he did it knowing very well she was his target.

Well, the one thing I find fishy is that if Pistorius did not know who was behind the door, why did he not shout out "who dat there man" before firing the gun four times. Maybe in that situation (in South Africa) you shoot first and ask questions later, but I think you would want to know where your loved ones were first in the house, before shooting blindly though a door. 

Also, unless the first bullet hit her head and killed her outright, would she not have screamed, and he would have known it was a woman, but another three bullets were fired, hmmm! (the 'distant' neighbours said they heard a woman's scream(s)).

To answer your quote,  I don't think the judge will be considering his boyish charms, but he is the 'David Becham' of South Africa, if that has an effect or pressure on the Judge one way or another, we will not get to know that.

The interesting thing about this trial is that there is no jury, and the final decision will be by the Judge, with consultation by the two on either side of her. 

Quotation from a website...
Judge Masipa, is only the second black woman to sit on the Transvaal High Court when she was called in 1998. Under apartheid she worked as a crime reporter and did not pass her bar exams until the age of 43. She has a strong history of tough sentences for crimes against women. On handing down life sentences to two rapists she argued that the crime was on the rise to such an extent that it was undermining the fabric of society.

Judge Masipa will be assisted by two “assessors”, legal experts who can come from varying backgrounds, often solicitors. There will be no jurors. Trial by jury was abolished in South Africa under apartheid in 1969.

This item was edited on Friday, 14th March 2014, 17:40

Am I right in thinking that there can't be a 'not guilty' verdict. It's either guilty of pre med murder or the charge that relates to causing death by shooting through a locked door without knowing the threat posed behind it. Not to mention the dumdums.

In South Africa, premeditated murder carries a mandatory life sentence with a minimum of 25 years. Pistorius also could get five years for each gun indictment and 15 years for a firearms charge he also faces.

If he isn't convicted of premeditated murder, the sprinter could face a lesser charge of culpable homicide, a crime based on negligence. The sentence for culpable homicide is at the judge's discretion. 

Taken from ....
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/11/world/africa/oscar-pistorius-trial/

I'm really shocked that there is no "Trail by Jury", untill I read your post I took it for granted that a ANC govenment would of brought it back years ago.

This is quite interesting from an article on LegalWeek on little reported aspects of the Judicial System.

"On the Legal Brief website, Professor Annette van der Merwe, a criminal procedure law expert at the University of Pretoria, said the two assessors could overrule the judge when it comes to a verdict on the facts in a majority finding. This means that if the two assessors were to rule in favour of murder, or the judge and one assessor were to rule so, then that verdict would be the accepted one. The same would apply if two of them were to rule in favour of an acquittal"

http://m.legalweek.com/legal-week/blog-post/2334070/the-oscar-pistorius-murder-trial-the-little-reported-legal-questions

This item was edited on Saturday, 15th March 2014, 12:45

At last....... we get information on the trajectory of the bullets, and it seems all agree (defence and prosecution), that Pistorius was on his stumps when firing gun.

The photos today tried to show disarray of items in bedroom, like CD on floor, and the defence went on the attack trying to hammer photographic evidence as items being moved around, ie, tampered with. Did not work though, as items are allowed to be moved after initial crime scene photos taken, as long as they have description of time moved and why. But did the police do that fully?, or is this again some tainted evidence? 

So its a crucial moment for Judge....
Was this disarray taken by the judge, as items being thrown around before the shooting, ie, a possible argument, she runs into toilet, he's angry, he shoots.  

This is a crucial decision to make by the judge and the two on either side of her, whether there was an argument before the shooting. We will have to wait what she thinks about it all, when summing up during finale.

This has been one real interesting court case, just a pity the police have been unprofessional with the evidence, allowing the defence to tear right into them.

The policeman today discussed the sequence of fired bullets, and was very professional for a change, the defence said it was bang bang (short pause) bang bang, according to a neighbour hearing.

But the policeman said it was bang (longer pause) then the three bullets followed. He stood by that.

He came to the conclusion that the movements of the girlfriend behind the door, needed a long pause for her to move to a defensive position.

Without going to much into the grizzly details, here are her movements due to being hit with bullets....  

Shot first standing behind door hits her body, then falls to toilet, takes a defensive position with hands crossed to her head (proved by bullet track up her arm), there is one bullet that missed, richoced off back wall and bruised her back, the head shot puts her down on the ground, slumped over toilet (this bullet went between her 'fingers gap' before hitting head).

From this....
The first bullet did not kill (she was standing up, so did not get the head shot)
Did she scream out?

Did she have time to scream during that longer pause between bullets, as she had time to go for defensive position, arms crossed, her hands to her head, before being shot again?

Defence could not crumble this policeman's story of events of bullet sequence.

This item was edited on Thursday, 20th March 2014, 00:01

A few days later and the trial is recommenced.

The Prosicution was getting some home runs in yesterday and today over the Email evidence, between Pistorious and girlfriend.

(conspiricy hat on) Funny how months of stored emails were easily retrieved by Police from phone company. Just a fact that everyone's information worldwide is now stored somewhere for a long time. (conspiricy hat off).

Anyway back to the point, It seems 99.3% of Emails were lovey dovey, but 0.7%, ie four conversations were disturbing, like the girlfriend saying she was sometimes scared of him.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/24/oscar-pistorius-scared-girlfriend-murder-trial-hears

This is quite crucial evidence on motives, and the Judge will take note.

(EDIT...Modified the above percentages to, as what the court statements read out)

This item was edited on Wednesday, 26th March 2014, 23:36

Today... Not so much new stuff, just backtracking on the cricket bat use.

Plus defence wanted and was granted viewing of a Sky news video shown, Pitorious and girlfriend in a shop, being lovey dovey.

The trial now into the fourth week is now winding down, and it looks like Pistorious will take the stand shortly to make his statements. That will be interesting.