[Blackwell:] In South Africa right now, Oscar Pistorius is testifying for a seventh day at his murder trial, being questioned now by his own attorney, now that the intense cross examination has come to an end. Prosecutors spent the morning trying to catch the sprinter in inconsistencies over what happened the night he shot and killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Listen.
[Gerrie Nel, Prosecutor:] You said we should blame you for having taken a life. That's what you said yesterday, am I right?
[Oscar Pistorius:] That's correct, my lady.
[Nel:] Who should be blamed for you having shot her?
[Pistorius:] My lady, I believed that there was a threat that was on my life.
[Nel:] So, once again, we have we shouldn't blame you for the fact that you shot her. Am I right?
[Pistorius:] I agree with Mr. Nel, my lady.
[Nel:] That we shouldn't blame you. Then who should we blame? We should blame somebody or something. Who should be blamed?
[Pistorius:] I'm not sure, my lady.
[Nel:] Should we blame Reeva?
[Pistorius:] No, my lady.
[Nel:] She never told you she's going to the toilet. Should we not blame her?
[Pistorius:] No, my lady.
[Nel:] Should we blame the government?
[Pistorius:] I don't know who one should blame, my lady.
[Nel:] I'm asking you must be blaming somebody for this.
[Pistorius:] I don't, my lady. I believed there was a threat.
[Blackwell:] CNN legal analyst Kelly Phelps is at the courthouse in Pretoria. Kelly, so the cross examination is now and it was contentious at many points. Take a look at it over the five-day span of this cross examination, and what is your feeling, your perception of what was accomplished during those days?
[Kelly Phelps, Cnn Legal Analyst:] Well, it's really too soon to tell what was accomplished because we can look at cross examination in and of its own right, but that's not the way the judge and the assessors will be looking at it. That they'll be considering his portion of testimony in relation to all the evidence of the trial. We can infer how Pistorius' legal team thinks that they've fared in this because they have just completed their re-examination of Pistorius. And in stark contrast to all of the days spent on the stand poring over details by the prosecution, Pistorius's legal team essentially stood up and finished within a matter of minutes, picking on just four key points that they chose to re-examine and emphasize from the court. So they clearly don't feel too raffled by how things have gone. I think what Nel did manage to do finally for the first time in the trial really was put a very clear version of his narrative of what the state, in essence, accuses Mr. Pistorius of actually committing that night, which up until now we haven't been exactly clear how they've said that evening played out, and he did put a clear version of that on the record. But the defense knows they still have other witnesses to put on the stand, and they clearly feel that they still have a case to present.
[Blackwell:] We know the burden is on the state to prove its case, but are you surprised that after five days of cross examination that the redirect was just a few minutes?
[Phelps:] No, I'm not surprised at all. In fact, it's entirely what I expected. And the reason I say that is that it provides a counterbalance from a strategic perspective to the strategy that Mr. Nel put forward, and these two gentlemen know each other's strategies very well. This is not the first time they've appeared in a case together. So while Mr. Nel's strategy was all about drawing it out for a long period of time, essentially confusing the issue and then trying to trip Pistorius up, Mr. Roux took the exact opposite strategy. He went in for a short, sharp re-examination and simply highlighted to the court, essentially trying to rise up from the white noise, what they believe are core, key contentions that cause trouble for the state's case.
[Blackwell:] Interesting. One more thing, can you explain for us or describe what we're not seeing and who we're not seeing, especially, obviously, Oscar Pistorius, who's decided not to appear on camera, but give us an idea of his disposition, his posture in this courtroom.
[Phelps:] Well, today his posture was a lot more composed than it had been yesterday, but throughout his period on the stand, we have seen him veer at times from quite composed and very focused and determined, directing his evidence straight towards the judge, not looking back once at Mr. Nel speaking to him. We've seen it veer from that to be very emotional, sort of crunching down into himself again, hands on head, and then also at times, probably quite understandably so we've seen some signs of frustration and sighing and his head going back as he sat through and endured that grueling cross examination from Mr. Nel. So we've seen him veer from all different states throughout this very long, over a week that he's been on the stand.
[Blackwell:] And it continues. Kelly Phelps there for us in Pretoria, thanks.
[Romans:] All right. Six minutes to the top of the hour. We'll be right back.