Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

nope, i won't see any except news .. this from the first story at the link below ..

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Defence lawyer Barry Roux later asked Burger whether she may in fact have heard the shouts of a desperate man and suggested that Pistorius may sound like a woman when he is anxious. The witness insisted she heard two people, a man and a woman, and four gunshots, but said she never heard the sound of a cricket bat striking a door.
Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/oscar-pistorius/53387/oscar-pistorius-murder-case-story-so-far#ixzz2uy7LIN36
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is the closest i've come to Roux so far, thanks for that info .. yup, there is talk of money negotiation ..

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Oscar Pistorius 'negotiating settlement' with slain girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp's parents
News Limited Network News Corp Australia Network January 20, 2014 12:04AM
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/more-sports/oscar-pistorius-negotiating-settlement-with-slain-girlfriend-reeva-steenkamps-parents/story-fnii0hmo-1226805481685
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i don't know if that would/could have any influence on the trial .. wouldn't think so, but it doesn't say .. am with you on the cynicism angle, it's hard to throw that aside especially in these hig profile cases, but to be fair to those involved i'm gonna try to be open minded on this one .. this bit is from the third story down now, in the same place as the top one above .. can't seem to get a link for separate stories ..

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Oscar Pistorius: South Africa’s legal stars prepare for battle - 2 March

THE international media will descend on Pretoria tomorrow for the first day of Oscar Pistorius’s trial for the alleged murder of Reeva Steenkamp. While all eyes will be on the world-famous Paralympian, it will be South Africa’s legal heavyweights who will ultimately battle it out on the court floor...

Pistorius' defence: Barry Roux

In the Pistorius camp the key figure is defence lawyer Barry Roux, a man The Guardian describes as a tough-talking “legal gun for hire”. Roux is a senior counsel – the South African equivalent of a QC – and made a strong impression at pre-trial hearings by reducing a senior police detective, Hilton Botha, to a “stuttering wreck”.

“This is like watching a baby seal getting clubbed,” tweeted a South African journalist as Roux’s brutal cross-examination of Botha gathered pace. The police officer was subsequently removed from the case when it was discovered he was facing seven counts of attempted murder himself. Roux was called to the bar in 1982 and now earns around 50,000R (about £3,200) a day for criminal work. He’s not as “slick or dapper” as Johnnie Cochran, the flamboyant lawyer who got OJ Simpson acquitted of murder, says the New York Post. But “he’s twice as relentless.”

Prosecution: Gerrie Nel

The man hoping to put Pistorius behind bars for the premeditated murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp is equally redoubtable. State prosecutor Gerrie Nel is no stranger to big cases, having successfully jailed South Africa’s police chief Jackie Selebi on corruption charges in 2010. During the investigation of Selebi, Nel was woken by 20 police officers who arrested him and his wife in front of their children on “trumped-up fraud charges”, the Post says. The charges were later dismissed and Selebi was handed a 15-year jail term.

Top detective: Vinesh Moonoo

The shortcomings of the police investigation carried out in the immediate aftermath of the 14 February shooting were brutally exposed by Roux at the pre-trial hearings. But Hilton Botha’s replacement, detective Vinesh Moonoo, has a reputation as the “top gumshoe” in the South African police force. He has built a case using psychologists as well as forensic, ballistics and technology experts. The 53-year-old has a blemish-free reputation and has mostly succeeded in staying off the media radar. In one rare interview he admitted that he knew when he was a schoolboy that he wanted to become a police officer. He has since become the “top detective in the SA Police Service” according to the force’s commissioner Riah Phiyega.

Judge: Thokozile Masipa

Johannesburg High Court judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa has been assigned to the Pistorius trial. A former journalist, social worker and advocate, Masipa became the country’s second black female judge in 1998, after former Constitutional Court judge Yvonne Mokgoro, and has presided over several high-profile criminal trials. She has spoken out strongly about violence against women and has made it clear that no one is above the law. She last year sentenced notorious house robber and rapist Shepherd Moyo to 252 years in prison, reports South Africa’s Times newspaper. In 2001, she sentenced two rapists to life imprisonment, warning that violence against women and children, especially rape, were increasing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. She also made headlines when she sentenced a policeman to life imprisonment in 2009 after he shot dead his former wife. She told him: “No one is above the law. You deserve to go to jail for life because you are not a protector. You are a killer.” ..
Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/oscar-pistorius/53387/oscar-pistorius-murder-case-story-so-far#ixzz2uy5uzFlA

lol .. if he's found innocent i think i'll have a cynicism rush ..