Pistorius verdict 5 weeks away(CNN) - The defense for Oscar Pistorius used the final day of closing arguments in a South African courtroom Friday to painstakingly go through a time line of the night he killed his girlfriend, revisiting phone records and witness testimony to back his version of events.
The second and last day of closing arguments caps months of proceedings that have seen the Olympic sprinter gag, vomit and break down in heaving sobs. The judge will consider her verdict over the next five weeks and announce it next month, she said.
Pistorius sent a message to supporters through his Twitter account at the end of court Friday: "Thank you to my loved ones and those that have been there for me, who have picked me up and helped me through everything."
CNN legal analyst Kelly Phelps said she was impressed with the way defense attorney Barry Roux completed his closing arguments. "We've always said they'd need to come out with their 'A' game, and that is certainly what they did here today," Phelps said.
Roux alleged the prosecution made mistakes and handled evidence poorly. He laid out details of the noises from that night: the gunshots, screams and pounding -- the last from Pistorius' using a cricket bat to break down the door. Witness testimony shows an anxious man screamed for help three times, which supports Pistorius' case, according to Roux. The defense reminded the court that Pistorius, who uses prostheses to walk after his lower legs were amputated as a child, suffers from anxiety. Roux compared the Olympian's situation to that of an abuse victim who suddenly snaps after undergoing suffering for a while.
Roux argued that Pistorius should be evaluated as a "reasonable" disabled person with anxiety, not as an ordinary "reasonable man." If the court finds that Postorius was "reasonable," then he must be acquitted, he said. In an attempt to discredit the prosecution's version of events, Roux also accused investigators of tampering with the crime scene by moving items around, including a fan and Steenkamp's jeans. In police pictures, the items appeared in different spots from where the Olympian said they'd been, Roux said. Roux pointed out that the burden of proof is on the state in this case, and accused the state of avoiding certain important facts and ignoring other reasonable scenarios.
Making his final arguments, prosecutor Gerrie Nel accused the Olympian's attorneys of presenting a defense that did not jibe with the facts.
Prosecution: Pistorius lied
Nel, renowned for his bulldog tenacity in questioning, maintained that Pistorius was dishonest and his testimony was "devoid of any truth." Using a metaphor reflecting Pistorius' career on the track, Nel said the athlete had "dropped the baton of truth."
"Without the baton of truth, you cannot complete the race," he said. Nel said the Olympian "displayed a blatant disregard for the law and the lives of others." In Pistorius' version of events, the prosecutor said, the athlete said he went to the bathroom door and fired with the intention to kill or hit, believing there was someone behind it. Before he fired, he was armed with a high-powered weapon and was "in charge" of the situation, Nel said. He said Pistorius should not go free regardless of whether the court believes he thought there was an intruder behind the door.
Calling the Olympic sprinter an "appalling" witness, Nel said the evidence from the bullet holes in the bathroom door suggests Pistorius had time to think, and that he looked down the gun sight as he fired.
But Roux referenced Nel's metaphors in disputing the accusations. "There's no crumbling of the mosaic [Nel's metaphor for the defense's circumstantial evidence] or dropping of the baton," he said.
Judge's decision
The closing arguments lower the curtain on a courtroom drama that, since March, has seen the Olympic sprinter weep and retch in the courtroom as disturbing evidence was presented. Proceedings were delayed while Pistorius underwent a court-ordered, month long psychiatric evaluation. He was depressed, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and is a suicide risk, the doctors concluded. But he did not appear to have a history of abnormal aggression or psychopathic tendencies linked to "rage-type murders in intimate relations."
The judge will give her verdict on 11th September 2014.
www.edition.cnn.com/2014/08/08/world/africa/pistorius-closing-arguments/?c=&page=3