The crime scene photos detailing the death of Reeva Steenkamp will
be released to the public.
Judge Thokozile Masipa this afternoon granted the state’s request
to release the pictures.
“Let us show the world what this accused did. It wasn’t an
intruder,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel told the North Gauteng High Court while arguing
in aggravation of sentence.
Nel’s application for the court to lift a ban on the photos of the
gunshot wounds inflicted on Steenkamp came minutes after Oscar Pistorius’ lawyer
Barry Roux had his client walk across the court on his stumps minutes before, to
show his vulnerability.
#OscarPistorius takes off his prosthesis in court. pic.twitter.com/EukYNb7FCa
— City Press Online (@City_Press) June 15, 2016
“Mr Roux wanted the court and the world to see. We now apply to let
the world see what this accused did with four Black Talon rounds through a door.
I will apply, when I have had the discussion with the family, for the court to
lift the ban on the photos,” he said.
Black Talon rounds disintegrate into sharp metal fragments when
they hit human flesh, causing horrific injuries.
Earlier, Pistorius had painstakingly made his way across courtroom
GD on his stumps.
“It’s time to explain our address to you,” his lawyer Roux, told
Judge Masipa moments before.
He said that just as Steenkamp’s father Barry yesterday called for
the world to be shown photos of the gunshot wounds his daughter had sustained,
so too should people see Pistorius’s vulnerability.
Pistorius, who got changed into running shorts and a T-shirt during
the tea break, got up from his seat in the dock and walked to the side of the
court where he sat down. Steenkamp’s father Barry had to get up to let him
pass.
“Just take off the legs,” Roux instructed him. Pistorius did as he
was told. Three police officers next to him looked uncomfortable as he took off
his prostheses. Pistorius got up and slowly made his way across the court, in
front of Masipa’s bench, steadying himself on the furniture. He kept his eyes
down.
Several old ladies who had been in court all week to show their
support for him, began sobbing.
Pistorius reached the left side of the court and stopped, holding
on to a bench. His psychologist Lore Hartzenberg came up to him to comfort him.
Someone handed him a tissue as he began crying.
He stood there for several minutes as Roux continued talking.
“It’s not a man running on two healthy legs. It’s a severely
compromised person.”
Pistorius made his way back across the court, his face red and
streaked with tears. He sat down next to the police officers, put his prostheses
back on and walked back into the dock. He sat there, doubled over, hiding his
face in his hands.
Nel argued that Pistorius had to be sentenced to a minimum of 15
years for Steenkamp’s murder.
“Courts have a duty to impose minimum sentences,” he told Masipa
during his closing arguments.
He said sentencing Pistorius to correctional supervision would fail
to pay “due regard” to the benchmark of 15 years for murder, which was set down
by law. He quoted from a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that crime was still on
the rise in South Africa.
“One notices all too frequently a willingness on the part of
sentencing courts to deviate from minimum sentences for the flimsiest of
reasons,” Nel read.
He was quoting the appeal court’s ruling that overturned Masipa’s
finding that Pistorius was guilty of culpable homicide for killing Steenkamp in
February 2013.
The court replaced it with a verdict of murder. It found that he
was a poor witness, and that he never provided an acceptable explanation for
firing the shots that killed Steenkamp.
Nel said finding that Pistorius had expressed remorse was
unacceptable since he had not offered a credible explanation for his actions.
“Remorse for what?” Nel asked.
Pistorius will be sentenced on July 6. – News24