e Washington, five and a half ahead of Toronto - the from zgr123's blog
The chief prosecutor in Oscar Pistorius murder trial said Thursday in closing arguments that the athlete repeatedly lied during testimony in a crude attempt to defend himself against a murder charge for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Adrian Peterson Womens Jersey . Prosecutor Gerrie Nel cited flaws in the defence, saying the Olympians legal team floated more than one theory about what happened on the night that Pistorius shot Steenkamp through a closed toilet door in his home. Defence lawyers had argued that Pistorius fired in self-defence, fearing an intruder, Nel said, but they also raised the possibility that he was not criminally responsible and accidentally shot because he was "startled." "Its two defences that you can never reconcile," Nel said as Pistorius sat behind him in the dock, occasionally flicking through documents. The once-celebrated double-amputee athlete appeared calm, in contrast to some past occasions during which he retched and wailed in apparent distress. The prosecution has argued that Pistorius intentionally shot Steenkamp before dawn on Feb. 14, 2013 after a quarrel, and argued he knew she was in the bathroom. Nel ended his closing argument by saying Pistorius was guilty of premeditated murder because he then "made up his mind" to find his gun, walk through to the bathroom and shoot. "That, my lady, is pre-planning," Nel said to the judge. Yet Nel said Pistorius should still be convicted of murder even if the court accepts he did not know it was Steenkamp in the toilet cubicle, arguing the athlete intentionally shot at and killed a person with no reason to believe his life was under threat. Barry Roux, the chief defence lawyer, listened and checked files as Nel spoke for hours. Nel was occasionally questioned by Judge Thokozile Masipa and urged to speed up elaborations on written arguments of more than 100 pages that were submitted to the court last week. Roux began his final arguments before Masipa postponed proceedings until Friday for the defence to finish. Masipa will then adjourn the trial to deliberate with two legal assistants on a verdict, with Pistorius facing 25 years to life in prison if convicted on the main charge of premeditated murder. Roux noted that some of the evidence at the scene, which Nel referred to, had been moved around by investigators. "Were not talking about a conspiracy," Roux said, calling it unintentional tampering. Roux also noted that Hilton Botha, the former chief investigating officer in the case, had acknowledged mistakes in police procedure but was not called by the state as a trial witness. According to Nel, Pistorius was vague in allegations that police had possibly tampered with evidence around the scene of the shooting, including fans and a bedcover strewn on the floor of his bedroom. It was also improbable that the athlete, in his version, rushed with his gun to investigate a purported sound in the bathroom without first trying to talk to Steenkamp and confirm that she was safe, the prosecutor said. "We cannot argue that he was the worst witness ever, that honour belongs to someone else," said the prosecutions written argument. "The accused was, however, demonstrably one of the worst witnesses ever encountered." The prosecution said Pistorius also "used well-calculated and rehearsed emotional outbursts to deflect the attention and avoid having to answer questions." A psychologist who examined Pistorius during a court-ordered observation period concluded that the athlete had become severely traumatized since the killing and could become an increasing suicide risk unless he continues to get mental health care. The fathers of the Olympic runner and Steenkamp, a model and television personality, were in the Pretoria courtroom for the first time since the trial began in early March. They sat at opposite ends of a long bench in the gallery. Pistorius is said to be estranged from his father, Henke, and Steenkamps father, Barry, has been ill. Pistorius older brother Carl, who has regularly attended court sessions, was in an intensive care unit in a South African hospital and was on a ventilator because of injuries suffered in a serious car crash last week, the Pistorius family said in a statement. In addition to the murder charge, Pistorius faces three separate gun-related charges. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Because South Africa has no trial by jury, Judge Masipa will decide if Pistorius committed murder, is guilty of a negligent killing, or if he made a tragic error and should be acquitted. The runner also would be sent to prison for years if guilty of murder without premeditation or culpable homicide. Masipa told Nel and Roux that they had only until the end of Friday to complete their final arguments in court. "Unless, of course, you want to work on a Saturday and perhaps Sunday, after church," she said, smiling. Adrian Peterson Youth Jersey . With nothing tangible at stake, the Raptors turned in their most impressive outing of the fall in their seventh and second to last exhibition tilt against their stiffest competition yet, but they lost a couple starters in the process. Alvin Kamara Jersey . The Canadians led for much of the game before Argentina forced overtime in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter. Canada weathered the storm after squandering a lead with a series of made shots. "Its a fantastic win for our country with 11 first-time Canadian national team members," said head coach Roy Rana.TORONTO - Even before the Hawks painted their latest masterpiece on the canvas that has become the slumping Toronto Raptors, Dwane Casey couldnt help but fawn over the NBAs hottest team. Although the Raptors head coach immediately shot down an implication of jealousy, could you blame him if he was a bit envious of Fridays opponent? 14 Eastern Conference coaches should be. Oh, its impressive, Casey admitted ahead of his teams 110-89 loss to the Hawks, Atlantas 25th win over its last 27 games. Somebody asked me yesterday, was I envious? But Im not envious, Im impressed more than envious. Weve shown times where weve moved the ball early in the season and got the ball humming and moving, he continued. Weve shown stretches of that. The Raptors were the Easts best team for a franchise-best 60 straight days before Atlanta dethroned them on the second night of the new calendar year. While the Hawks have been on a tear through the league, defeating some of the NBAs best teams in impressive fashion, Toronto continues to trend in the opposite direction with no easily apparent or quick fix in sight. That was not us, Casey said after they allowed the Hawks to shoot 61 per cent in a game that matched their most lopsided defeat of the season. We didnt come out and put our best game on the court. Its not one person. Were still in that rut and the only way were going to get out of it is to work our way out of it. Casey would not diminish his teams effort and overall compete level, but knows that whatever it is the Hawks are playing with right now - what the Raptors had to begin the season - escapes them at the moment. For the second time this week, they held a closed-door, post-game meeting, the content of which theyre keeping to themselves, rightfully so. With limited practice time and mid-season fatigue beginning to wear on them, the challenge could be a mental one more than anything else. Theyve lost six of eight after racing out to an impressive 24-7 start. How do they find themselves again? We had a long talk, James Johnson said. Its going to stay internal, but we just got a little over-confident and we started taking to heart that were a good team [but] we havent accomplished nothing yet. As long as we get back to that, were still in a good place. Were still third [in the conference], first in our division, but it can go south right away and we dont want that. Toronto has accounted for a quarter of Atlantas eight losses on the season, both coming early in the campaign. Now, the division between the two clubs is significant. Casey often likens these Hawks to the multidimensional Spurs teams of the last couple decades - a natural comparison given that their coach, Mike Budenholzer, spent 17 years working as an assistant under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. There are a couple obvious siimilarities in the way they spread the floor and move the ball but theyre also looking an awful lot like the Golden State Warriors team that also handed Toronto a 21-point loss earlier this month. Ryan Ramczyk Womens Jersey. All 10 players that logged meaningful minutes for the Hawks on Friday can shoot the ball. Most of them can pass and do so at a frenetic pace that had the Raptors defence running around aimlessly all night. Theyre a different team, Kyle Lowry said. More confident, learning their system even more. Their shooting is unbelievable right now. Theyre playing together. They got all their guys and theyre moving the ball extremely well, added DeMar DeRozan, who led Toronto with 25 points on 11-of-18 shooting in his second game back from injury - he and Johnson were the teams lone bright spots on the night. Theyre playing at a high level and you have to give them credit. Atlanta recorded 30 assists on 42 made field goals, hitting 12 of their 23 attempts from long distance and scoring 24 points off Torontos 19 turnovers - another alarmingly high total for a team that has dropped off considerably in that category. The Raptors have thrown the ball away 120 times over the past seven games after committing almost half the amount of turnovers (63) in the previous seven. You should be frustrated if youre getting your butts kicked, Casey said. Were all frustrated and you should be. If youre a competitor you should be frustrated, but theres no frustrating in pointing fingers, its everybody. On Friday, they were overmatched against a very good team that played nearly flawless basketball - an excusable loss in and of itself. But that storyline is sounding all too familiar. While the Hawks have been victorious in 11 of their last 12 contests against teams at or above the .500 mark, Toronto has dropped eight of nine to winning competition. Though the Hawks are beginning to separate themselves in the conference - now five games up on second-place Washington, five and a half ahead of Toronto - the East is still very much up for grabs. The Raptors may not be the team that many hoped they could be after that hot start to the season, but theyre right to believe they are better than this. At some point, if they are to contend in the conference and take another step as an organization, they have to start hitting back against the leagues heavy weights. They have to find themselves again. You can go right through the roster, said Casey. Coaches, players, say you can do this better, we can do this better. Thats what weve got to do, because weve done it. We did it at a high level for a couple of months. Weve just got to get that mojo back and get that two-by-four off our shoulder. Were still in a good place, but weve got to fight through this and grind through this tough spot right now. Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys China NFL Cheap Jerseys ' ' '
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