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Pistorius did not consciously act illegally – Roux
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius did not consciously act unlawfully when he killed Reeva Steenkamp, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Friday.
FILE PICTURE: Barry Roux, lawyer for Oscar Pistorius, is seen at the North Gauteng High Court on Tuesday, 11 March 2014. Pistorius is accused of the murder of model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp on February 14 last year. She was shot in the arm, hip and head. He is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and two counts of discharging a firearm in public. Picture: Kevin Sutherland/Pool
Presenting closing arguments during sentencing proceedings for Pistorius, his lawyer Barry Roux referred the case of Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye who was at first found guilty of murder for killing four schoolboys while drag racing down a Soweto street while high on drugs. This was later converted to culpable homicide.
“We must just remember, although it was also negligence there, they (Jub Jub and his friend) consciously acted unlawfully. They knew that you cannot race cars down the street.
“The accused did not consciously act unlawfully.
“His actions were to some extent dominated by anxiety and vulnerability.”
Summarising the judgment, Roux said the court had found Pistorius did not subjectively foresee that he could kill a person behind a door, let alone Steenkamp.
Pistorius sat quietly crying as Roux spoke.
On September 12 Judge Thokozile Masipa found Pistorius guilty of the culpable homicide of model and law graduate Steenkamp, but not guilty of her murder. Pistorius had claimed he thought there was a burglar in his toilet when he fired four shots through the locked door in the early hours of February 14 last year, killing Steenkamp.
Masipa found Pistorius guilty of discharging a firearm in public, when he shot from his friend Darren Fresco’s Glock pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, in January 2013.
Pistorius was found not guilty on two firearms-related charges — illegal possession of ammunition, and shooting through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012.
– Sapa
