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Pistorius Was Not Mentally Ill at Time of Shooting, Psychiatrists Report Pistorius Was Not Mentally Ill at Time of Shooting, Psychiatrists Report
(about 3 hours later)
LONDON — The South African track star Oscar Pistorius was not mentally ill when he shot and killed his girlfriend last year, according to a psychiatric assessment that was conducted as part of his murder trial, news agencies reported Monday. LONDON — After weeks of psychiatric assessments that could have derailed the proceedings, the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius, the disabled South African track star, resumed on Monday after experts ruled that he was not mentally ill when he killed his girlfriend last year.
The announcement came as Mr. Pistorius’s trial resumed in Pretoria, the South African capital, after weeks of psychiatric assessments of his mental health when he killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The trial in the South African capital, Pretoria, had been suspended since mid-May while Mr. Pistorius, 27, underwent tests at the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital. If the evaluation had found serious mental impairment, his trial could have come to an abrupt end.
Psychiatrists who examined the Olympic and Paralympic athlete informed Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa of the findings, which could determine the course of the trial. The prosecution say he murdered Reeva Steenkamp, 29, in a jealous rage after an argument, but Mr. Pistorius says he shot her by mistake, believing that an intruder had entered his home and was hiding in a toilet cubicle when he fired four shots through the door.
The trial was adjourned in mid-May after Dr. Merryll Vorster, a forensic psychiatrist testifying for the defense, told the court that Mr. Pistorius had a general anxiety disorder. The lead prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, immediately demanded that Mr. Pistorius undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Mr. Pistorius was assessed as an outpatient at the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital in Pretoria. Before the postponement, a defense witness said he suffered from a general anxiety disorder stemming from the amputation of both legs below the knee at the age of 11 months after he was born without fibula bones.
Mr. Pistorius, 27, is accused of the premeditated murder of Ms. Steenkamp, 29, but he has denied the charge, saying he believed he was in peril from at least one intruder when he fired four rounds from a handgun into the locked door of a toilet cubicle at his home in Pretoria in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013. But a report prepared by the psychiatrists who examined him found that “at the time of the alleged offenses, the accused did not suffer from a mental disorder or mental defect that affected his ability to distinguish between the rightful or wrongful nature of his deeds,” the chief prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, told the court on Monday.
Only when he smashed through the door with a cricket bat, he has said, did he realize that Ms. Steenkamp was inside. The conclusion was critical since defendants deemed unable to distinguish between right and wrong can be committed indefinitely to state mental instutions, South African lawyers not associated with the case have said.
Mr. Pistorius’s anxiety, Dr. Vorster said, dated to the amputation of both legs below the knee when he was 11 months old after he was born without fibula bones. Mr. Pistorius’s development was also influenced, the psychiatrist said, by a frequently absent father and a mother who was so worried about intruders entering her home that she slept with a firearm under her pillow. Mr. Nel and the lead defense lawyer, Barry Roux, accepted the findings.
The athlete’s condition, which worsened with time, made him “hypervigilant” about potential threats and led him to respond to perceived danger with reflexes of “fight” rather than “flight,” Dr. Vorster said. The ruling permitted the trial, which is being broadcast around the world, to resume with the defense winding up its case before both sides present closing arguments to Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa. Since there is no jury trial in South Africa, the judge, advised by two assessors, will determine Mr. Pistorius’s guilt or innocence most likely after lengthy deliberations.
In the United States and elsewhere, psychiatric assessments are often used by the defense to establish diminished responsibility — and therefore limited culpability. But in the Pistorius case, the prosecution sought the examination to challenge the defense’s contention that psychological factors buttressed the case for acquittal or leniency. Before the killing on Feb. 14, 2013, Mr. Pistorius was one of the world’s most famous athletes, a symbol of overcoming adversity after he competed against able-bodied and disabled runners at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012. He and Ms. Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, had seemed a gilded couple in the world of South African celebrity.
Judge Masipa ordered the panel of mental health experts to determine whether Mr. Pistorius was “capable of appreciating the wrongfulness of his act or acting in accordance with appreciation of the wrongfulness of his act” when he opened fire. Before the trial adjourned last month, Dr. Merryll Vorster, a forensic psychiatrist called by the defense, said Mr. Pistorius’s anxiety dated to the amputation of his legs, exacerbated by a childhood when his father was frequently absent and his mother was so worried about intruders that she slept with a firearm under her pillow.
Two South African lawyers not connected with the case said the country’s Criminal Procedure Act stipulated that defendants found to have a mental disorder or defect that rendered them unable to distinguish between right and wrong at the time of an offense must be committed indefinitely to a mental hospital. The athlete’s condition, which worsened with time, made him “hypervigilant” about potential threats and led him to respond to perceived danger with reflexes of “fight” rather than “flight,” Dr. Vorster said. Mr. Nel, the prosecutor, used the testimony to demand a psychiatric examination of Mr. Pistorius.
In the United States and elsewhere, psychiatric assessments are often used by the defense to establish diminished responsibility — and therefore limited culpability. But in the Pistorius case, the prosecution sought to challenge the defense’s inference that psychological factors buttressed the case for acquittal or leniency.
Mr. Pistorius faces a mandatory minimum prison term of 25-years if convicted of premeditated murder, but he could face a shorter sentence on a lesser charge of culpable homicide.Mr. Pistorius faces a mandatory minimum prison term of 25-years if convicted of premeditated murder, but he could face a shorter sentence on a lesser charge of culpable homicide.
As the trial resumed on Monday, Gerald Versfeld, the surgeon who amputated Mr. Pistorius’ lower legs, quoted the runner as saying that he fell frequently and had difficulties balancing when he was walking on his stumps without the prosthetics he uses. Underlining the runner’s vulnerability, he quoted Mr. Pistorius as saying his dog had “knocked me over many times.”
According to reporters in the courtroom, Judge Masipa and her assessors closely examined Mr. Pistorius’s stumps as Mr. Versfeld explained how the skin moved on them. The scrutiny, which was not televised, left Mr. Pistorius distressed after the details of his disability were exposed, the reporters said in posts on Twitter.