Authorities in Pretoria say everything’s in place for Judge Thokozile Masipa to present her judgment without delay or interruption. It will probably take today (Thursday) and tomorrow to complete.

The Oscar Pistorius murder trial has gripped the world as much as it has South Africa over its 39 court days this past six months.

Former social worker and journalist Judge Thokozile Masipa’s taken more than month to consider the evidence of 37 witnesses, including Pistorius himself who wept several times and vomited into a bucket during proceedings.

He maintains his fatally shooting his lover Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day last year through a bathroom door was a tragic error because he feared she was an intruder.

The state contends he killed her deliberately after a blazing row.

The trial has been broadcast live on television with journalists and the families and friends of Pistorius and Steenkamp packed into the court and filling an overflow room.

Both defence and prosecution have worked assiduously at dismantling their opponents’ cases.

It will be for Masipa to say whether she’s found any reasonable doubt allowing Pistorius to escape the charge of premeditated murder and whether he’s guilty of a lesser charge of murder or even culpable homicide.

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The prosecution’s been trying to punch holes in the testimony of a medical expert who says that because the accused has no lower legs and is unsteady on his stumps, he opted for fight rather than flight when he mistook his lover Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder behind the toilet door.

Oscar Pistorius’s lawyer Barry Roux asked Judge Thokozile Masipa for an adjournment until today, saying he needed to get proper instructions before closing the case.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel contends Pistorius’s sports doctor overstated his immobility on his stumps.

He contends Professor Wayne Derman cannot be objective because he is the accused’s caregiver.

Pistorius’s defence team say his disability and anxiety disorder led the paralympian to shoot Reeva
Steenkamp out of fear that she was an intruder.
A re-enactment video commissioned by the defence shows Oscar moving with greater mobility without his prosthesis than Derman testified.

It’s been aired by an Australian television network, but has not been entered as evidence before the court.

Pistorius’s team warned against any other media rebroadcasting the clip.
Steenkamp’s mother June has told a British magazine she’s forgiven Pistorius and doesn’t hate him.
However she’s determined to face him and re-claim her daughter.

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