The murder trial of Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius should come to an end in mid-September, when a South African judge will deliver a verdict on whether Pistorius is guilty of fatally shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a toilet stall. The sensational trial has continued for months, including a court-ordered break while Pistorius received an independent psychiatric evaluation.

2.  The murder trial of Olympic runner Oscar
Pistorius should come to an end in mid-
September, when a South African judge
will deliver a verdict on whether Pistorius
is guilty of fatally shooting his girlfriend
Reeva Steenkamp in a toilet stall. The
sensational trial has continued for
months, including a court-ordered break
while Pistorius received an independent
psychiatric evaluation.

3.  In a CBS News documentary recounting the
crime and trial, criminal defense attorney Joe
Tacopina was asked to offer his opinion on the
potential outcome of the trial. Tacopina said
that one of the prosecution’s most valuable
pieces of evidence, witnesses’ accounts of
hearing a woman’s screams the night
Steenkamp was shot, could be attributed to
Pistorius, who sometimes spoke in an
emotional, high-pitched voice during the trial.
“It leaves a hole for the defense to punch a
hole in the evidence for this case,” Tacopina
said in the documentary “Oscar Pistorius: Shots
in the Dark.”

4.  Tacopina also pointed out that the judge
could consider the context of the case,
including the high rate of crime in South
Africa and Pistorius’ alleged anxiety and
fear of being attacked.
Pistorius, who gained international fame
after competing in London Olympic track
events despite being a double-amputee,
has been charged with premeditated
murder and separate firearm charges. The
verdict in his case should be announced
Sept. 11.