Paralympian gold-medalist Oscar Pistorius will face a charge for premeditated murder at a Pretoria-based court today for killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s day last year.
Pistorius, 27, who’s admitted to shooting Steenkamp three times in the middle of the night while she was in his bathroom, will have to convince the High Court in Pretoria, the capital, that his actions were unintentional and reasonable, while the prosecution must prove premeditation.
“I expect that raising reasonable doubt will be difficult,” James Grant, an associate professor at the University of Witwatersrand’s School of Law in Johannesburg, said by phone. “Pistorius would have to convince the court that the shooting was in fact a terrible tragedy that he will have to live with for the rest of his life.”
The trial of the man once on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people is set to be South Africa’s equivalent of the case of ex-NFL football star O.J. Simpson. One television company is dedicating a 24-hour channel to the story and as many as 80 international media houses will have reporters in court.
The charges have derailed the running career of the winner of six Paralympic gold medals and cost Pistorius sponsorship deals with Nike Inc. (NKE) and Luxottica Group SpA’s (LUX) Oakley.
The prosecution plans to call more than 100 witnesses for a trial scheduled to last three weeks. The presiding judge is Thokozile Matilda Masipa, who in May sentenced Shepherd Moyo to three life sentences for three rape charges and an additional 165 years for robbery and attempted murder. South Africa doesn’t have a jury system.
Known as the Blade Runner because of his J-shaped prosthetic running blades, Pistorius has been free on 1 million rand ($93,000) bail since February last year after four days of hearings. He was born without fibulas and had both legs amputated below the knee at 11 months old.
Grant said he didn’t think initially that it would be possible to reach a plea bargain for culpable homicide.
“I don’t think there’s a chance for a plea bargain at this stage, although I expect that the opposing sides can settle at any point,” he said.
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Feb. 25 ruled that the trial can be broadcast live on radio and partially live on television.
Multichoice Africa Ltd. and Primedia Broadcasting Ltd. were granted permission to provide the coverage, High Court Judge Dunstan Mlambo said. Multichoice must give a free feed to other television channels under the ruling.
“Oscar Pistorius’s career has been of great interest to South Africans and peaked in 2012 when he made Olympics history as the first sprinter to compete using prosthetic blades,” Aletta Alberts, the head of content at Multichoice, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “This incident and subsequent judicial process has attracted more public interest than any other of its kind in South Africa.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Amogelang Mbatha in Johannesburg at ambatha@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net