Eighteen months after Oscar Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a judge is set to deliver her verdicts after hearing 41 days of evidence in the murder trial.
South Africa has no jury system so Judge Thokozile Masipa will decide on the verdicts herself with the help of two assessors.
Will she rule that he was, as the prosecution has suggested, a jealous, rich man who stormed down his bedroom corridor after his frightened girlfriend and deliberately shot her through the toilet door in an angry tantrum?
Or will she go with the defence’s case that he was a terrified, emotionally immature young man who felt excessively vulnerable due to his disability and fired his gun because he believed they were in danger?
The world-renowned athlete, who achieved global recognition by becoming the first amputee to run in both the Olympics and Paralympics, will find out along with everyone else over the next two days.
Judge Masipa will go through the four charges facing Oscar Pistorius, explaining how she’s reached her decision.
The athlete faces one count of murder, two of illegally discharging a firearm – which is unrelated to the death of Ms Steenkamp – and one of illegally possessing ammunition. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
She will go through the testimonies of each of the 37 witnesses who gave evidence at the six-month-long murder trial – 21 witnesses testified for the prosecution and 16 for the defence.
And she will examine the main legal points made by both the state and the defence lawyers before she outlines her conclusions.
Typically a judge would go through each of the charges in the order they were first outlined to the court but as the murder charge was the initial charge – she may opt to deliver all four verdicts sometime on the second day to maintain order.
The judge has set aside just two days to go through the 41 days of court evidence and outline her conclusions and verdicts.
But she will stop short of sentencing there and then.
Instead, if the athlete is convicted on any, all or some of the above, it will lead to further court action as the prosecution and defence present their evidence and character witnesses to try to sway the judge on sentencing.
That will almost certainly mean an adjournment whilst the defence prepares its case and lines up witnesses which could include calling the athlete himself to the witness box again.
The prosecution on the other hand has the right to call members of Reeva Steenkamp’s family – perhaps her mother, June, who has been in court most days of the lengthy trial.
She may be called upon to give a first-hand account of the effect of her daughter’s death on her family.
