Today Judge Masipa delivered her judgement in the much debated trial of Oscar Pistorius. After weighing up of all the evidence, the court found Oscar to be not guilty of premeditated murder. The court’s reasoning was that there was insufficient evidence to support such and that the state has failed to satisfy the court beyond a reasonable doubt that Oscar was guilty of such.

The court next considered whether Oscar was guilty of non-premeditated murder. Did he have the intention to kill Reeva Steenkamp? In considering the latter, the court examined dolus eventualis, which is a form of intent. The crucial question is whether Oscar could foresee that he would kill someone behind the door. Did he intend to shoot at the door and foresee killing someone? The court ruled that Oscar had the intention to shoot the person in the toilet, but not the intention to kill. He did not see the possibility of the resultant death, which means he cannot be found guilty of murder.

Oscar can however still be found guilty of culpable homicide. In order to determine such, the court has to decide whether the reasonable person in the same circumstances would have acted differently. Would such person have foreseen the consequences of their actions and guarded against such? It is important to note that with dolus eventualis the court examines whether the accused ‘did’ foresee the consequences of his actions, whether the reasonable person test examines whether the accused ‘should have’ foreseen. Whilst taking into account his disability and vulnerability, the court was not persuaded that a reasonable person with the same disability in the same circumstances would've fired four shots into that small toilet cubicle. The court adjourned with Judge Masipa stating that Oscar fails the reasonable person test.

Whilst not explicitly convicting him of culpable homicide yet, it is important to remember that the judgement is not over yet and will proceed tomorrow. From the Judge’s statement that Oscar fails the reasonable person test, only one inference can be drawn, and that is that Oscar is indeed guilty of culpable homicide.