That’s the date Judge Thokozile Masipa, presiding over the athlete’s murder trial in the Pretoria High Court, says she’ll give her verdict after the 41-day trial that’s gripped South Africa and captured international attention.

Completing his closing argument, the defence counsel for Oscar Pistorius has lashed the prosecution for saying the accused has lied about his movements in the bedroom on the day he shot his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Barry Roux adds that the police contaminated the crime scene

Pistorius says he fired shots through the bathroom door of his golf luxury golf estate home that fatally wounded Steenkamp because he mistook her for an intruder.

The prosecution alleges he’s guilty of premeditated murder because he shot her deliberately after an argument.

Barry Roux says the timeline shows there was no shouting before the shots were fired early on Valentine’s Day last year.

He says Pistorius should have been tried for culpable homicide.

But denies that the accused has two contradictory defences.

He also accepts that Pistorius might be guilty of negligence on an alternative charge of firing a pistol under the table in a crowded restaurant.

Preparing her judgment Judge Masipa has more than 4 000 pages of evidence to consider.

The post Pistorius verdict due on Spetember 11 appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Pistorius’s lawyer Barry Roux continues his closing argument today (Friday) accusing the state of purposefully ignoring important facts to incriminate Pistorius.

Following a month-long break, South Africa’s highest profile trial has reached its finale with prosecutor Gerrie Nel summing up his argument insisting the state’s made a strong enough case in the 40-day proceedings to warrant Oscar Pistorius being convicted of premeditated murder.

The athlete’s accused of killing his cover-girl lover Reeva Steenkamp at his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day last year.

He says his shooting her was a tragic mistake.

The State maintains he killed her after an argument.

Nel calls Pistorius a deceitful witness who put up two contradictory defences, neither of which is acceptable.

He maintain Judge Thokozile Masipa should find the accused guilty of murder – even if she cannot agree that he planned the killing.

Roux says the court must measure the testimony of state witnesses against objective facts.

The State hasn’t tried to reconcile two sets of sounds emanated from Pistorius’s house, he says, on the morning of the shooting because this would damage its case.

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