In a bizarrely lengthy ruling—the reading of which took nearly two hours, most of which was devoted to summary of the evidence and of South African law—Magistrate Desmond Nair granted bail to paralympic medalist Oscar Pistorius, who has been charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, law student and model Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius, who spent the week in court as each side presented its evidence, broke down several times during the reading of the decision, and at one point Nair stopped reading his decision in order to ask if the double-amputee sprinter was okay. The bulk of the decision focused on the competing theories of Steenkamp's death: according to Pistorius, he was walking on his stumps and terrified when he shot Steenkamp four times through a closed bathroom door, believing her to be an intruder; according to prosecutors, the Pistorius had strapped his legs on and walked from the bedroom to the bathroom with the full intent of shooting and killing his girlfriend after a night of arguments.