Pistorius, who released from prison in October (15) to complete his sentence under house arrest, will have to return to court for sentencing on the new charge, and he faces up to 15 years behind bars.
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A murder conviction carries a much heftier sentence: a minimum of 15 years in South Africa. The court ruled Thursday a lower court did not correctly apply the rule of dolus eventualis – if Pistorius knew death would be a likely effect of his actions. The decision to overturn the manslaughter conviction was based on the court’s belief that the original conviction had come as a result of a misinterpretation of the law and an incorrect dismissal of evidence, according to The New York Times. The prosecution tried to depict Pistorius as an angry boyfriend who intentionally shot his model-girlfriend as she cowered behind a toilet door.
“And her, having already given her judgement of culpable homicide, now they’d have to do a re-trial on the sentencing”.
Pistorius will be sentenced at a later date. The South African court of appeal Thursday, Dec. 3 2015 convicted Pistorius of murder, overturning a lower court’s conviction of the double-amputee Olympian on the lesser charge of manslaughter for shooting his girlfriend to death in 2013. “Romance blossoms and then ironically, on Valentine’s Day, all is destroyed when he takes her life”.
“This case involves a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions”, Leach said while delivering the ruling on behalf of the five-judge appeals court.
Steenkamp’s mother June, who has said she does not want retribution, attended the court session. “She will be remembered and it’s good for all the women in South Africa”.
State prosecutors argued during the trial and Pistorius had killed Steenkamp after a fight, but Pistorius has maintained that he believed there was an intruder hiding in the bathroom of his home. They would not comment on whether they were considering an appeal through a constitutional court.
But the crux of the appeal was the issue of intent to kill, known as “dolus eventualis” – meaning, could Pistorius have foreseen that firing four bullets through the door of a tiny toilet cubicle, with a 9mm gun, would have killed whoever was behind that door, regardless of the identity of that person.
Under that concept, a person can be convicted of murder if he or she foresaw the possibility of someone dying through their actions and went ahead anyway.
“We’ve got justice, we’ve got respect for Reeva, we’ve got respect for women”, Ms Steenkamp said.
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“Let us now all get on with our lives”, he said. His voice breaking with emotion, he said of his daughter: “I’m sure she’ll be able to rest as well now”.
