Oscar Pistorius, Olympic Double Amputee, Faces Murder Trial in South Africa

The Oscar Pistorius murder trial is adjourned.

After his first procedural hearing since bail was set in February, the South African track star was let off until August, during which time prosecutors will build their case.

Pistorius's story is tragic in the height the star achieved and the degree to which he's fallen. First capturing the world's attention at the Olympic Games in London last year, the track star was known as the blade runner for the prosthetic limbs upon which he ran. A double amputee, Pistorius first came to international attention running in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. Fighting an international ban on prosthetically "enhanced" runners, Pistorius's demanded the right to compete against able-bodied men and eventually won a court case to do so. Born without both fibulae and suffering a double amputee before he was one year old, Pistorius became the first double amputee to run in the Olympics.

All this stands in sharp contrast to the trial that has turned him from international inspirational icon into murder suspect. That's because last Valentine's Day, Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp in the bathroom of his house.

Pistorius's defense team claims that - when firing through the bathroom stall in his mansion, in Johannesburg - Pistorius thought he was attacking an intruder. The case has garnered international attention for some of the racial and classist overtones involved; according to the Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, Johannesburg is the 50^th most violent city in the world, with a murder rate of 30.50 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The prosecutor, in contrast to Pistorius's claim, says that Pistorius was aware of his girlfriend's presence in the house, and that the time it took to put on his prosthetic limbs and walk to the bathroom to fire into the stall with his 9 mm pistol proves premeditation. They are pursuing a "premeditated murder" charge, which would carry a minimum sentence of 25 years.