After a six-month-plus trial, Judge Thokozile Masipa on Thursday found Oscar Pistorius not guilty of pre-meditated murder and murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. She has not yet ruled on culpable homicide charges. He could still be convicted when proceedings resume Friday. Following the announcement, the Olympic athlete known as the “blade-runner” broke down in sobs, and the world took to social media to express their opinions. Here are 10 tweets from international media, South African celebrities and regular people expressing the range of emotions and attention this trial has received around the world.
Sources: Twitter, ABC News
The BBC posted this picture and tweet as Oscar Pistorius made his way into court Thursday morning for the reading of the verdict.
The South African blogger based in London who goes by the handle XTine on Twitter had this to say about the verdict:
If your partner isn’t in bed with you then wouldn’t you check it was her using the toilets before shooting.. #oscarpistorius
— XTINE (@workxtine) September 11, 2014
This Twitter user queried how the disabled community was responding to the not-guilty murder verdict:
How is the #disability community reacting to the #verdict in the #OscarPistorius trial? Was #judge rt 2 take disability into acct?
— Gabriella Burman (@GabriellaBurman) September 11, 2014
This user from South Africa responded to her tweet about disabilities with his own:
@GabriellaBurman if you have a disabled family member then you are more informed to answer ur question. YES
— Jozi South Africa (@REVOLP) September 11, 2014
However, his prior tweet offered this commentary:
Oscar should set up an anti-gun lobby in SA in Reevas name. #OscarVerdict
— Jozi South Africa (@REVOLP) September 11, 2014
Belinda from New Zealand was outraged at the verdict, tweeting this:
Wtf? How can someone shoot at a door that many times by accident? I wonder how much money is influencing the verdict? #oscarpistorius
— Belinda (@Bellz2012) September 11, 2014
The self-described “former journalist” from South Africa also didn’t agree with the judge, as can be witnessed in the above screenshot.
Although Twitter was abuzz with the above picture implying legal corruption, not everyone believed it. Radio and TV producer Gaetano Kagwa retweeted it out to his 38,100 plus followers, accompanied by these words:
As usual pple r quick to pass their own judgement, this tym on #ThokozileMasipa. #OscarPistorius #NotGuilty of Murder pic.twitter.com/quIS7LObM8
— gaetano kagwa (@gaetanokagwa) September 11, 2014
Other journalists such as Emma Barnett of the U.K.’s Telegraph Newspaper, chose to focus in Twitter on the victim, Reeva Steenkamp rather than her killer. Pistorius admitted to shooting his girlfriend, but said it was an accident and that he thought she was an intruder.
The Johannesburg-based CNN correspondent, who has live tweeted throughout the trial, sent out this infographic to her 11,800-plus followers prior to the verdict.
We couldn’t resist this last one. It has nothing to do with the trial, but we kinda agree with Eva Palacios, whose Twitter account identifies her as a commercial airline pilot based out of Melbourne.