Sunday, August 10, 2014

Oscar Pistorius: South Africa: Murder Trial: Defense alleges police tampering during final arguments; Associated Press. (Published by the Huffington Post);


STORY: "Oscar Pistorius murder trial: Defence alleges police tampering during final arguments," published by the Associated Press on August 8, 2014.

 GIST: "On Friday, Nel sat and listened as Roux alleged that items in Pistorius' bedroom, near the bathroom where he killed Steenkamp, may have been moved around by investigating officers. "There was no respect for the scene," Roux said of the police investigation. He also noted that the former chief investigator, Hilton Botha, who later resigned from the force, was not called as a witness by the state. The positioning of bedroom items, including a fan, a bedcover and a pair of Steenkamp's jeans, are important because, in police photographs, they were not in the places where Pistorius said they were before the shooting, leading prosecutors to argue that Pistorius is lying in his version of events. The prosecution has argued that a fan was found standing directly in front of doors leading to the balcony, and therefore Pistorius' story that he ran to the doors, opened them and screamed for help after realizing he shot Steenkamp by mistake is not true. Prosecutors say Pistorius never went out to retrieve two fans before the shooting and move them inside, which the athlete says is the reason why he did not see Steenkamp get out of bed and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The bedcover was shown crumpled on the floor in a police photograph. Pistorius had claimed it was on the bed, leading him to believe Steenkamp was underneath it in the bed when he went to the bathroom with his gun.........Masipa was expected to adjourn the trial at the end of proceedings Friday to deliberate on a verdict with the help of two legal assistants. South Africa does not have a jury system."

The entire story can be found at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/08/oscar-pistorius-murder-trial-final-arguments_n_5661130.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 

Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
 
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
 
I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;