Oscar Pistorius is not mentally ill when he claimed to have accidentally shot his model girlfriend to death. This was declared by a panel of mental health experts who have submitted reports to the Pretoria High Court for his murder trial. The conclusion of the reports, which was read out by prosecutor Gerrie Nel, apparently removed the possibility that the Olympic athlete could be declared not guilty because of his state of mental health at the time of the shooting, the Associated Press noted. Should the reports declare him mentally ill, the court would have been forced to refer him to a state state psychiatric institute for care instead of potential jail time.
The reports were the product of a 30-day evaluation as ordered by the court in the past month following testimony by a psychiatrist, who said that Pistorius had an anxiety disorder. Pistorius' mental health was used as a reason of his fatal shooting of Reeva Steenkamp at his home in the wee hours of Valentine's Day last year.
Nel announced the conclusion of the report following a court break. The conclusion was arrived by a psychologist and three psychiatrists who had assessed the double-amputee runner at a state-backed psychiatric hospital. AP said that the process conducted on Pistorius was more exhaustive than the one conducted by Dr. Merryll Vorster, who testified in Pistorius' defense and declared him mentally unstable when he shot Steenkamp.
On the other hand, Nel only read quotes from the reports and that the entire reports were not released to the public, which further increased questions about the other findings of the doctors.
Should Pistorius be found guilty, he could face 25 years to life in prison for premeditated murder. Moreover, he could also face years in prison if convicted of murder without premeditation or what is called negligent killing, AP said.
