By Evann Gastaldo You hear a lot about the healing power of forgiveness these days, but the movement has gone too far, writes Simon Doonan in Slate . Reeva Steenkamp‘s uncle wants to forgive Oscar Pistorius for killing her. The mother of the girl who was raped in Steubenville, Ohio, forgave one of the… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Oscar Pistorius’ appeal against his bail conditions will be heard on Thursday, a day after the culpable homicide trial of older brother Carl begins, a family lawyer told The Associated Press on Friday.
Advocate Kenny Oldwadge said they had confirmation from Pretoria’s North Gauteng High Court that the appeal is scheduled for March 28 at the High Court, meaning the brothers will both likely have legal proceedings on the same day.
The Olympic athlete, charged with murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last month, is challenging travel restrictions and having to report twice a week to a police station, among other conditions.
Oldwadge and prosecutors said Pistorius — who hasn’t been seen publicly since he was granted bail — was not required to appear in court for the appeal.
The next part of the 26-year-old double-amputee runner’s high-profile case — which continues to grip South Africans and much of the world’s media — will now take place while brother Carl is in another court to defend himself against a culpable homicide charge for alleged negligent driving in the death of a 36-year-old woman in a road collision in 2008.
Carl was going to trial on Wednesday and Thursday in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate’s Court, south of Johannesburg, prosecutors said. The 28-year-old Carl denies the charges and Oldwadge said he would lead Carl’s defense at the trial.
The concurrent dates for the Pistorius brothers had also stretched the family’s legal team, Oldwadge said, and provided them with significant logistical problems.
“We didn’t suggest it (the date for Oscar’s appeal) but we were forced into it because of the need to get the appeal heard as soon as possible,” Oldwadge said.
He said there was “no need” for Oscar to appear in court.
The multiple Paralympic champion’s legal team filed an appeal against some of his bail conditions on March 7, objecting to him being not allowed to travel outside of South Africa even though a magistrate said he was not a flight risk when granting him 1 million rand ($108,000) bail last month. They’re also challenging the alcohol ban and that Pistorius cannot speak with any residents at the Silverwoods Country Estate, where he shot Steenkamp dead in his house the early hours of Feb. 14.
Pistorius’ lawyers say he should be able to consult with residents to be able to prepare his defense. They also object to the ruling that he has to report twice a week to the Brooklyn Police Station in Pretoria, where he was held after his arrest.
Pistorius denies murdering his girlfriend and says he shot her by mistake fearing an intruder was in his home. Prosecutors say he killed her intentionally following a loud argument in the early hours of Valentine’s Day.
State prosecutors also believe they have a culpable homicide case against Carl, who they argue was driving negligently, National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Medupe Simasiku told the AP on Friday.
Simasiku said the older Pistorius brother was driving a Ford Ranger SUV in March 2008 when he collided with a female motorcyclist. The woman, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By Polly Davis Doig 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
South African police say the former lead detective in the investigation of the murder case against Oscar Pistorius has resigned from the police force.
Police Brig. Neville Malila said Thursday that detective Hilton Botha voluntarily applied to leave the service.
Botha made several procedural errors in his role as the lead investigator after Pistorius, the double-amputee athlete who competed at the London Olympics, shot and killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Feb. 14.
It later emerged that Botha faced attempted murder charges for a case in which he fired on a vehicle in an attempt to make it stop. His superiors then removed him from the Pistorius case.
A remarkably public feud erupted Tuesday within the family of Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympian charged with murdering his girlfriend, as the runner and his relatives distanced themselves from comments his father reportedly made about guns and crime in South Africa.
South Africa‘s ruling party, the African National Congress, also waded into the family dispute. A spokesman for the party accused Henke Pistorius, the runner’s father, of racism for his observations reported in British newspapers about crime against white South Africans and the suggestion that the ANC government isn’t adequately protecting them.
The Pistorius family and the reputation management firm it has hired are working to head off any negative publicity or controversy that might possibly have a bearing on the outcome of the runner’s case, which could see him jailed for life if convicted of premeditated murder.
They quickly issued a statement early Tuesday morning saying the family “is deeply concerned” about the father’s interview that “doesn’t represent the views of Oscar or the rest of the Pistorius family.”
The Telegraph and Mirror newspapers quoted Henke Pistorius as saying the family owns handguns for self-defense. That is not unusual in South Africa. Two years ago, Police Minister Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa said the country of 49 million people had 1.7 million registered firearm owners holding 2.9 million guns.
Oscar Pistorius had a police license for the 9 mm pistol with which he shot Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day.
The gun collectors’ club, the Lowveld Firearm Collectors Association, which the runner joined last April said Pistorius also owned but hadn’t yet licensed six other firearms for his gun collection.
South Africa‘s Beeld newspaper reported that the runner’s father, three uncles and grandfather also own 55 firearms between them — ranging from handguns to rifles.
“Some of the guns are for hunting and some are for protection, the hand guns,” the Telegraph quoted Henke Pistorius as saying. “It speaks to the ANC government, look at white crime levels, why protection is so poor in this country, it’s an aspect of our society.”
“You can’t rely on the police, not because they are inefficient always but because crime is so rife,” the father said, according to the newspaper.
It said he had never used a gun in self-defense, but added: “That doesn’t mean I haven’t been hijacked, attacked. As a family, we value life much too much to produce guns at every opportunity we can use them.”
“I have been in positions where I can use a gun but we have been brought up in a way that we value the lives of others very highly,” he said.
Prosecutors charged Pistorius with premeditated murder for killing Steenkamp, saying the shooting followed an argument between the two. Pistorius said he mistook the 29-year-old model for a home intruder, fired shots at the door of his toilet and then discovered she was inside.
The family statement said: “Oscar Pistorius‘s family is deeply concerned about the comments made by Oscar’s father, Henke Pistorius, to UK newspaper the Telegraph about the family using its weapons to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By John Johnson 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Oscar Pistorius planned a personal memorial service on Tuesday for Reeva Steenkamp, the 29-year-old model he shot at his home on Valentine’s Day.
The evening service would be at the Pretoria home of his uncle Arnold, where the Olympic athlete has been staying since he was released on bail awaiting trial on a premeditated murder charge.
Pistorius’ reputation management firm said Pistorius had specifically requested the service “as he remains in deep mourning for the loss of his partner Reeva,” whom he says he shot by accident assuming an intruder had entered his home on Feb. 14.
“Oscar has asked for a private service with people who share his loss, including his family members who knew and loved Reeva as one of their own,” Vuma Reputation Management said in a statement.
Exactly a week ago, a memorial service was held for Steenkamp in the southern coast city of Port Elizabeth, where her body was cremated following a private service.
That same day, the bail hearing for Pistorius started in the nation’s capital Pretoria.
It was unclear exactly what Pistorius’ service would consist of or how many people would attend.
Prosecutors say the pair had an argument before Steenkamp was killed. Vuma said that Pistorius “continues to grieve” for her. Vuma spokeswoman Janice Hills would not give any further details about the ceremony, saying it is “a private matter for the family.”
Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair set bail for Pistorius at 1 million rand ($113,000). The 26-year-old track star was also ordered to hand over his passports, turn in any guns he owns and keep away from his upscale home in a gated community in Pretoria, the scene of the crime.
He cannot leave the district of Pretoria without his probation officer’s permission and is not allowed to consume drugs or alcohol.
Nair himself was in private mourning on Tuesday. He confirmed that he is related to a woman suspected of killing her two children and committing suicide on the weekend.
The revelation was the latest twist in the saga of Pistorius and prominent figures linked to the case against the double-amputee athlete.
The bodies of a woman and her two sons were found Sunday evening at their Johannesburg home by her ex-husband, police Warrant Officer Balan Muthan said. Authorities suspect the woman administered a substance that killed her children, and took her own life by ingesting it as well.
“I can confirm the deceased is my first cousin,” Nair told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The woman’s brother, Vishal Maharaj, identified her as Anusha Maharaj. Police said Maharaj was her family name before she married. South African media identified her as Anusha Mooljee.
Muthan said police suspect “she took her own life by ingesting a substance that killed her,” and that she “most probably” gave the same substance to her children. Autopsies were conducted Monday and toxicologists were analyzing the substance believed to have killed the three family members.
Suicide notes were found and a murder investigation was underway, Muthan said. He said copies of the notes were admitted as evidence in the probe …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By Neal Colgrass 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By Polly Davis Doig 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
The family lawyer of Oscar Pistorius says the brother of the Olympic paraplegic athlete is facing culpable homicide charge in a 2010 road death.
Laywer Kenny Oldwage would not confirm details of the case Carl Pistorius is facing, but Sunday’s development is compounding the problems for the family after Oscar was charged with premeditated murder in the Feb. 14 shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Local media reported that Carl Pistorius was allegedly involved in a crash with a woman motorcyclist and that he was to face trial last Thursday, as his brother Oscar was facing a bail hearing.
Oscar Pistorius was released on bail Friday and his brother Carl was seen driving into the affluent villa of their uncle Arnold early Sunday, where Oscar is staying while on bail.
The father of Oscar Pistorius‘s slain girlfriend has told a South African newspaper that the athlete will have to “live with his conscience” if he is lying about how he killed her.
In its Saturday edition, the Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper quotes Barry Steenkamp as saying Pistorius will “suffer” alone if his assertion that he accidentally shot 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp is false.
Barry Steenkamp says he might be able to forgive Pistorius one day if the double-amputee Olympian is telling the truth.
Pistorius was released on bail on Friday. He is charged with premeditated murder in the Valentine’s Day slaying of his girlfriend.
By Matt Cantor 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By The Huffington Post News Editors
* Defence says Pistorius too famous to flee
* Prosecution says killing of girlfriend premeditated
PRETORIA, Feb 22 (Reuters) – A judge is likely to decide on Friday whether to grant bail to Oscar Pistorius, with prosecutors arguing he is a cold-blooded killer and his own lawyers that he is far too famous to have any chance of fleeing prosecution.
The bail hearing, which began last Friday, was set to resume at 0800 GMT.
Defence lawyers for Pistorius say the athlete shot dead his girlfriend only by terrible mistake, and deserves bail to prepare for a case that has garnered global attention and has been marred by a bungled police investigation.
The star “blade runner”, whose lower legs were amputated in infancy, has become an even more globally recognised figure since he killed model Reeva Steenkamp, 29, in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day at his home.
Prosecutors have told the court it was a premeditated murder, with Pistorius firing four shots through a locked toilet door at a cowering Steenkamp on the other side. She was hit in the head, arm and hip.
Witnesses said they heard a gunshots and screams from the home in a gated community surrounded by 3-metre- (yard-) high stone walls and topped with an electric fence.
Pistorius contends he was acting in self-defence, mistaking Steenkamp for an intruder and feeling vulnerable because he was unable to attach his prosthetic limbs in time to confront the threat, he said in an affidavit read in court.
The 26-year-old said he grabbed a 9-mm pistol from under his bed and went into the bathroom.
Pistorius described how he fired into the locked toilet door in a blind panic in the mistaken belief that the intruder was lurking inside.
Bail hearings in South Africa allow for prosecutors and defence lawyers to lay out their basic arguments, based on preliminary …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
By Greg Wilson
Attorneys for Oscar Pistorius, the so-called Blade Runner, are poking headline-grabbing holes in the forensic evidence arrayed against the South African double amputee, but none of it changes facts that show the Olympic sprinter killed his model girlfriend, said former LAPD investigator and author Mark Fuhrman.
The former lead detective in the Pistorius case is facing an attempted murder charge stemming from an on-duty incident, prosecutors may have been too quick to say steroids were found in the Pretoria mansion of the suspect and detectives missed a bullet lodged in the bathroom wall.
“So what?” says Fuhrman, who as a detective had a major role in the O.J. Simpson case and then went on to write several books analyzing the evidence in various high-profile murders.
“The defense attorneys are doing what defense attorneys everywhere do,” Fuhrman said. “When you look at the facts, even omitting all the forensic evidence the police have produced, it’s crystal clear.
“Here is what he admits: ‘I shot my girlfriend.’ And he has to admit he fought with her in the past, because the police had been there previously. That’s really all you need to know here.”
Fuhrman dismissed the latest revelation that South African detective Hilton Botha is facing attempted murder charges in connection with a 2011 shooting incident. That case, which involved Botha and two other police officers who allegedly fired at a minibus they were trying to stop, was reopened 10 days before Pistorius’ girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp was killed, after new evidence surfaced. Botha was taken off the Blade Runner case on Thursday.
“That wasn’t a shock,” Fuhrman said. “Any street cop knows you will be sued or involved in some type of litigation throughout your career. If the detective was compromised in any way, how does that change the actions of the suspect on the night in question?”
Although Botha admitted under questioning that nothing at the crime scene was inconsistent with Pistorius’ explanation, Fuhrman said the evidence is a much better fit with the explanation that prosecutors have offered.
Steenkamp, 29, was in a bathroom when she was shot four times through the door. Defense attorneys have sought to dispel the idea she was hiding from her enraged beau by noting her bladder was empty – suggesting she had gone to the room to use the toilet. Fuhrman scoffed at the explanation.
“I’ve got news for them: When you’re dead, your bowels and bladder relax,” he said.
Pistorius, 26, claims he awoke in the night and heard a noise in the bathroom and assumed it was an intruder, saying he felt a “sense of terror rushing over” him.
“He knew there were two people in the house, he lives there, and she’s over,” Fuhrman said. “He hears something in the bathroom, and he doesn’t think it’s his girlfriend? He has an extensive security system that apparently has not been set off, yet he assumes the person behind the bathroom door is a burglar?”
The defense has also disputed the “pre-meditated” aspect of the murder charge. But Fuhrman noted reports that a bloody …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By The Huffington Post News Editors
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Nike has suspended its contract with Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee runner from South Africa who is facing a charge of premeditated murder in the Valentine’s Day slaying of his girlfriend.
Pistorius, who became the first double-amputee runner to compete on the track at the Olympics at last year’s London Games, is accused of intentionally killing model Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius says he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder and that the shooting was accidental.
“We believe Oscar Pistorius should be afforded due process and we will continue to monitor the situation closely,” Nike said in a brief statement posted on its website Wednesday.
By Rob Quinn 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By The Huffington Post News Editors
PRETORIA, South Africa — Police say they found two boxes of testosterone and needles in the bedroom of Oscar Pistorius, the Olympian who has been charged with murder in the shooting of his girlfriend.
Detective Hilton Botha made the revelation Wednesday in testimony at the bail hearing for the athlete charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
During the wee hours of Valentine’s Day, while South African model, entrepreneur, law school graduate, and women’s rights vocalist, Reeva Steenkamp, prepared a surprise for her Olympic star boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius, she was shot to death. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius has arrived early at the courthouse for a bail hearing where his lawyers and police expect to reveal details of the alleged killing of his model girlfriend.
Police say they will press for a charge of premeditated murder against the 26-year-old athlete. Pistorius’ family says police evidence will show there should be no murder charge.
Police arrived at Pistorius’ home in the early hours of Valentine’s Day, last Thursday, and found the body of Reeva Steenkamp, 29, with four bullet wounds. They were responding to neighbors’ calls about shouting and gunshots. A 9-mm pistol was recovered.
Journalists watched Pistorius, his head covered with a hoodie, leave the police station and arrive at the back entrance to the courthouse in South Africa‘s capital, Pretoria, before 7 a.m. (0900 GMT) Tuesday.
By Rob Quinn 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
