First impression of the South African court room of the trial of Oscar Pistorius is how very familiar it is to a lawyer from here. On your first day, you would know where to stand and sit and where and who everyone else in the court is. The physical structure is the same. Lots of glowing wood paneling and official crests and the judge is up quite high. In this case the judge is a small, elegant black woman addressed as M'Lady. On either side of her are two clerks in full tog but not quite so high up. In front of the judge, a row of clerks and court reporters, computer guys and technicians. Then the Well and facing toward the judge across the Well, the respective large tables and a row of seats behind that of respective assistants. Then two vacant rows behind the bar for family and presumably, VIP's, then the gallery, jam-packed in this instance. Big press presence. At one point Pistorius' timely reappearance after a break was prevented entirely by a press blockade and required intervention.
Before any testimony, all witnesses are asked if they want publicity and if they say no, the judge issues an order that no image of this witness can be published in any form. Bang, that's it. I love that there's the option of saying no, I want to be everywhere!
By way of a little back ground, Oscar Pistorius (OP) was arrested and charged with the premeditated murder of his very beautiful girlfriend. He admitted that he shot her accidentally through the bathroom door thinking she was an intruder. He reported that he was screaming at her to call the police while he believed he had the intruder cornered in the bathroom. She was in the bathroom and the door was locked. He fired through the door four times. Then he realized somehow it was Reeva in the bathroom. He broke the door down, carried her downstairs and out the front door screaming for help. She died in his arms. Meanwhile, he is a double-amputee, both legs, an olympic runner, who kept a 9mm under his bed. There's an issue about did he have his artificial legs on when he shot. There's an issue about how many people were heard to be screaming that night in the early AM. There's an issue about were they fighting and screaming before the shots were fired and how long before. There are some things to talk about.
Between the arrest and the trial there was an elaborate bail hearing at which the defense laid out its entire case in extraordinary detail and that was released world wide in its entirety.
First day of trial was about the screaming. A woman who lived a distance away came in to tell what she had heard. She heard a woman screaming for her life in extreme distress. The cross exam of this woman was really rough. The lawyer was patronizing and dismissive. He enunciated distinctly like the trouble with the question was that she was stupid, He started a question with "Well, even if we believed you were awake, your house faces the wrong way so you couldn't have heard anything." He said she had heard the released bail hearing information and that's why she thought there was screaming. He read her the section of the bail hearing transcript literally eight times for the proposition that it was from the bail hearing she got her info to now contradict the defense position. She kept saying that what she heard did not conform to that defense story but the lawyer wanted a yes or no answer to a question of two paragraphs the upshot of which was that she was just being contrary.... Yes or no.
Finally there was an objection, essentially asked and answered, but in a portend of things to come, the Judge said to the witness "You are here to answer questions and you must answer or be you will here for another two days." Witness wouldn't do it. She stuck to her guns and stated that what she heard "did not conform" to the defense bail hearing statement. Then, "You were on the opposite side of the house far away." and "If we believe you were awake at all. You weren't awake... what for?" and " If you couldn't tell if there was screaming before you woke up then you can't know that there wasn't." ( Huh?) "But I know a woman when I hear one." "And yet you couldn't hear words." "You hear hyenas and jackals in your neighborhood don't you?" "No only a lion." "Did you have your pillow over your head?" Then his point was this, when she heard gunshots finally, she never said, these gun shots have followed a woman screaming. Her husband had told her that the sounds she heard were gunshots. His point was that after she heard the shots she never said to her husband at that point that she had heard some woman crying out loudly. Her husband said he heard Oscar Pistorius' voice calling for help. He spoke to Oscar Pistorius several times but she don't know what about. He said to her "That's Oscar's voice/" Then commotion occurred. She saw the ambulance.
Before any testimony, all witnesses are asked if they want publicity and if they say no, the judge issues an order that no image of this witness can be published in any form. Bang, that's it. I love that there's the option of saying no, I want to be everywhere!
By way of a little back ground, Oscar Pistorius (OP) was arrested and charged with the premeditated murder of his very beautiful girlfriend. He admitted that he shot her accidentally through the bathroom door thinking she was an intruder. He reported that he was screaming at her to call the police while he believed he had the intruder cornered in the bathroom. She was in the bathroom and the door was locked. He fired through the door four times. Then he realized somehow it was Reeva in the bathroom. He broke the door down, carried her downstairs and out the front door screaming for help. She died in his arms. Meanwhile, he is a double-amputee, both legs, an olympic runner, who kept a 9mm under his bed. There's an issue about did he have his artificial legs on when he shot. There's an issue about how many people were heard to be screaming that night in the early AM. There's an issue about were they fighting and screaming before the shots were fired and how long before. There are some things to talk about.
Between the arrest and the trial there was an elaborate bail hearing at which the defense laid out its entire case in extraordinary detail and that was released world wide in its entirety.
First day of trial was about the screaming. A woman who lived a distance away came in to tell what she had heard. She heard a woman screaming for her life in extreme distress. The cross exam of this woman was really rough. The lawyer was patronizing and dismissive. He enunciated distinctly like the trouble with the question was that she was stupid, He started a question with "Well, even if we believed you were awake, your house faces the wrong way so you couldn't have heard anything." He said she had heard the released bail hearing information and that's why she thought there was screaming. He read her the section of the bail hearing transcript literally eight times for the proposition that it was from the bail hearing she got her info to now contradict the defense position. She kept saying that what she heard did not conform to that defense story but the lawyer wanted a yes or no answer to a question of two paragraphs the upshot of which was that she was just being contrary.... Yes or no.
Finally there was an objection, essentially asked and answered, but in a portend of things to come, the Judge said to the witness "You are here to answer questions and you must answer or be you will here for another two days." Witness wouldn't do it. She stuck to her guns and stated that what she heard "did not conform" to the defense bail hearing statement. Then, "You were on the opposite side of the house far away." and "If we believe you were awake at all. You weren't awake... what for?" and " If you couldn't tell if there was screaming before you woke up then you can't know that there wasn't." ( Huh?) "But I know a woman when I hear one." "And yet you couldn't hear words." "You hear hyenas and jackals in your neighborhood don't you?" "No only a lion." "Did you have your pillow over your head?" Then his point was this, when she heard gunshots finally, she never said, these gun shots have followed a woman screaming. Her husband had told her that the sounds she heard were gunshots. His point was that after she heard the shots she never said to her husband at that point that she had heard some woman crying out loudly. Her husband said he heard Oscar Pistorius' voice calling for help. He spoke to Oscar Pistorius several times but she don't know what about. He said to her "That's Oscar's voice/" Then commotion occurred. She saw the ambulance.