Four reasons why Oscar Pistorius wasn’t found guilty of murder

In a surprise decision for many, Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled Thursday that she will not find Oscar Pistorius guilty of murdering Reeva Steenkamp, premeditated or otherwise. Masipa will hand down her ruling on Friday, when she could find Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide, a verdict that carries a maximum of 15 years in prison but carries no mandatory jail sentence.

To find otherwise would be tantamount to saying that the accused’s reaction after he realized that he shot the deceased was fake, that he was play acting merely to delude the onlookers at the time.

Judge Thokozile Masipa

Pistorius had four things working in his favor. Phone records support his timeline of events, not the timeline laid out by several prosecution witnesses. The prosecution’s case was built largely on circumstantial evidence, such as the testy WhatsApp messages between Pistorius and Steenkamp used to show their relationship was a rocky one. Pistorius relayed his version of events—that he thought an intruder was locked behind a bathroom door—mere minutes after the shooting took place, and that his version did not waver later in questioning. Masipa agreed with the defense that it would be “highly improbable” for Pistorius to have made up this story so quickly. Masipa determined that Pistorius genuinely believed Steenkamp was in bed, not in the bathroom, and that he believed his life was in danger.

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