Oscar Pistorius walks without prosthetics to show court 'how vulnerable he is'

On the third day of Oscar Pistorius' resentencing trial, the Paralympian gold medalist removed his prosthetic legs and hobbled through a South Africa courtroom in a display of "how vulnerable he is without his artificial limbs," Reuters reports. Pistorius' lower legs were amputated when he was a baby. The courtroom walk came as his lawyers argued for a more lenient sentence than the minimum of 15 years Pistorius currently faces for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. Pistorius claims to have mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder when he shot her multiple times through a locked bathroom door.

Thus far in the trial, Pistoruis has been perceived by some as getting "preferential treatment" because he is white and wealthy, but Pistorius' lawyers argue that these misconceptions have arisen from "perceived misunderstandings around the defendant's motives and mobility," The Wall Street Journal reports. "It was not the man winning gold medals that must be judged,” Pistorius' defense lawyer, Barry Roux, said. "[Popular belief suggests it] is a 1.85-meter man standing on his stumps at 3 o'clock in the morning in the dark that must be judged." Roux underscored that Pistorius was "vulnerable because of his disability."

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel responded to Pistorius' courtroom walk by asking the court to show photos of Steenkamp's "bloodied head and torso after the shooting," Reuters reports.

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Pistorius was previously sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter for the killing of Steenkamp. However, that conviction was overturned in 2015 after an appeals court hit Pistorius with a more serious murder charge. He is currently living under house arrest.