Oscar appeal judgement reserved
Judgement has been reserved in the Supreme Court of Appeal in the State's appeal of the culpable homicide conviction of Oscar Pistorius.
A full bench of the court in Bloemfontein has heard arguments today from both the prosecution's Advocate Gerrie Nel and defence's Advocate Barry Roux.
One of the five justices hearing the State's appeal says he finds it troubling how Judge Masipa dealt with the evidence of ballistics expert Captain Chris Mangena.
Mangena testified in the initial months of the trial heard in the North Gauteng High Court last year.
Mangena had told that court that Pistorius was most likely standing without his prosthesis when he fired the shots with the first of four bullets striking his girlfriend's right hip.
Justice Stevan Majiedt questioned how Masipa found that Mangena was an excellent witness but then accepts parts of Pistorius' version which differ from that of the expert.
''If one reads the record, it's quite impressive on the cold record without having seen the witness and so on.
"However, you don't understand how she gets to where she does with the fact that she basically accepts what the accused said that if he'd wanted to kill her, he would have fired a higher shot that is completely contrary to Mangena's evidence and his reconstruction.
"So, the two never meet and that to me is very troubling,'' he said.
State Prosecutor Gerrie Nel says the court rejected Pistorius's evidence as that of a bad witness but accepted parts of his evidence. Listen to him below:
The State believes he should have been found guilty of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Before proceedings adjourned, Justice Eric Leach said he thinks Judge Thokozile Masipa was wrong and that Pistorius could be convicted of murder on the basis of dolus eventualis, even if he thought Steenkamp was in the bedroom and not the person behind the toilet door.
Roux has maintained that Judge Masipa did not make an error in her application of the law.
"When he fired the shots, thinking it was an intruder - he genuinely believed, he bona fide believed that the deceased was in the bedroom and that is absolute in law a correct finding on an analysis of a previous factual finding in relation to dolus eventualis," he said.
(File photo: Gallo Images)