Oscar Pistorius was granted bail today in a South African court, meaning he can be released from jail for the six to eight months before his trial for the allegedly premeditated killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Magistrate Desmond Nair, in reading his lengthy decision, said, "The issue before me is whether this accused, being who is and the assets he has [here], would seek to duck and dive all over the world." He concluded, "I cannot find that he is a flight risk."
Nair said, "The accused has made a case to be released on bail."
The judge also said he had to weigh whether Pistorius would be a danger to others. He noted that Pistorius has been accused of using foul language against people in arguments and once threatened to break someone's legs, but he said that was different from someone with an arrest record of violence.
"I appreciate that a person is dead, but I don't think that is enough," he said.
Nair also said he could not be influenced by the public's "shock and outrage" if Pistorius is released.
The judge's ruling came on the fourth and final day of the bail hearing for Pistorius, the Olympian accused of murdering his girlfriend on Valentine's Day.
Pistorius, who gained global acclaim for racing at the 2012 London Olympics, shot his model-girlfriend through a closed bathroom. He says he killed Reeva Steenkamp accidentally, but prosecutors alleged that he took a moment to put on his prosthetic legs, indicating that he thought out and planned to kill Steenkamp when he shot her three times through the bathroom door.
Pistorius sobbed today in court. Barry Roux, his defense attorney, said the prosecution misinterpreted the assigning of intent, meaning that the runner's intent to shoot at a supposed intruder in his home cannot be transferred to someone else who was shot -- in this case, Steenkamp.
"He did not want to kill Reeva," Roux told the court.
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