Today, everyone around the world will be waiting to know the fate of Oscar Pistorius. More than a year and a half after Oscar Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in his home in the middle of a dark February night, the world-famous sprinter’s murder trial is racing for the finish line.
Judge Thokozile Masipa is set to deliver her verdict in the case today, with possibilities ranging from a life sentence to letting Pistorius — who’s been nicknamed the “Blade Runner” for the prosthetic devices on his legs — leave court a free man.
There’s a simple question at the heart of the case: Did Pistorius know or suspect that his 29-year-old cover model girlfriend was in the bathroom when he fired four bullets through a locked door at her, killing her almost instantly?
If the judge is convinced that Pistorius, 27, did know he was firing at his girlfriend, he’ll be convicted of murder. If the judge accepts the disabled Olympic star’s defense that he thought he was shooting at an intruder, she could convict him of the lesser charge of culpable homicide, or find him not guilty.
