London, 2012: Fluorescent lights shine down on the clay track. 8 runners line up for their 400m race in a stadium filled to the brim with onlookers. Most eyes, though, are on the runner in yellow and green. They call him “the fastest man on no legs”. This is a big race for Oscar Pistorius, and though he is eliminated in the semi-finals, he has made history as the first amputee to compete in track at the Olympics.
A Pretoria courtroom, South Africa, 2014: a teary-eyed, distraught-looking Pistorius is charged with premeditated murder of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. It is less than one month after her death, and tensions are still running at an all-time high in both the Pistorius and Steenkamp families. Cameras and reporters buzz outside the courtroom awaiting reports of the proceedings.
When the death of Reeva Steenkamp was announced, the media took no pause in creating a spectacle. The story of Pistorius’ fall from fame continued as the center of attention for weeks. Naturally, controversy swirled around the tragic incident with hundreds of theories and reenactments surfacing, investigating what had really occurred that fateful February night. Pistorius’ previous run-ins with domestic violence accusations were thrust into the spotlight, and ultimately, people were skeptical that he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder as he claimed.
It would be months before the judge came to a verdict, with Pistorius receiving a psychiatric analysis for an anxiety disorder. Six months after being determined psychologically sound, he was officially convicted of culpable homicide, with a sentence of 10 months to five years. A premeditated murder conviction would have carried a life sentence.
The London 2012 summer Olympics were the first Olympics I remember watching, and definitely the first I ever kept up on. The controversy that surrounded Pistorius’ participation in the games was prevalent, to say the least: should a Paralympian be allowed to run in the able-bodied Olympics? In my opinion, it was a bit of a stretch to suggest that Pistorius' famed “blades” gave him an unfair advantage. If a Paralympian is able to compete at the able-bodied Olympic level, more power to him, not to mention the unbelievable inspiration this must have been for fellow amputees and able-bodied children alike. Seeing an amputee run in the Olympics was a feel-good moment I believed most people could get behind.
Given the media's habit of dramatizing situations for ratings, I was wary about the initial theories deeming Pistorius a murderer, and took them with a grain of salt. I tried to mostly rely on the trials when forming my own opinion of the case. Though intense and upsetting, Pistorius’ displays of emotion were not a factor in my decisions. Covering his eyes, crying, and becoming violently sick: these are signs of a guilty, regretful man as well as an innocent one who is shaken by such a weighty accusation. Even the inconsistencies in his testimony did not sway me.
What really got me was the supposed screaming. Pistorius stated multiple times that he had been screaming for Reeva to call the police. If this is true, there is no reason she would not have screamed back in response. It doesn't add up that he would have been standing outside the bathroom door screaming that there was an intruder, and that she would have continued to sit inside the bathroom in complete silence. Pistorius has also stated he believed Reeva was in bed whilst everything was occurring. In court when questioned, he could not explain why Reeva did not respond from inside the bathroom. All of this is what, sadly, sealed Pistorius’ fate for me.
When he was eventually charged with culpable homicide rather than first-degree murder, and would only serve 5 years, I was shocked. Culpable homicide is the “unlawful, negligent killing of a human being”, in South African laws. The judge determined that Pistorius had no intent to kill his girlfriend, premeditated or otherwise. Judge Masipa stated that there was no evidence of Pistorius knowing his gunshots would kill the person behind the door; his actions were simply reckless, negligent, and unreasonable. Dismissing witness statements that said they heard screams from Pistorius’ house, she went on to say they could have well been Pistorius’ screams for Reeva to call the police, or his screams of anguish at finding his girlfriend dead in the bathroom. Judge Masipa said there was no way Pistorius could have forseen killing Steenkamp, as he thought she was in the bedroom. As far as I could find, the judge did not address the point that was most incriminating to me: why did Reeva not scream back from the bathroom?
Pistorius was due to be released from prison last week, having only served the minimum ten-month sentence for his conviction. However, two days prior to being released to house arrest, South Africa’s justice minister, Michael Mathusa, ordered a review of his pending parole. Mathusa cited legal misproceedings for delaying the parole, stating that Pistorius should not have even been up for parole review until he had completed his minimum ten month sentence. It seems that political pressures, namely from women’s rights groups, also prompted the justice minister’s decision to speak out in this particular case. Last week, South African state prosecutors decided to file an appeal against the culpable homicide verdict, instead pursuing a murder charge. If convicted on murder charges, Pistorius faces a minimum of an additional 15 years in jail. The appeal is set for November of this year.
Since her verdict, Judge Masipa has suggested that a successful appeal may be possible. It seems that the trial of "the fastest man on no legs" is set to continue, perhaps with an verdict more consistent with public opinion. Only time will tell.
