June Steenkamp, the mother of Reeva Steenkamp, looks on as judge Eric Leach delivers his verdict at the court in Bloemfontein, on December 3, 2015 Oscar Pistorius was convicted of murder on December 3 by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal, which threw out his earlier conviction on the lesser crime of culpable homicide for killing his girlfriend. He fired four shots into the bathroom door of his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day in 2013. The minimum sentence is 15 years in jail. The former track star was put under house arrest at his uncle’s mansion in a Pretoria suburb on October 19 after serving one year of a five-year prison sentence, in line with the guidelines of South Africa’s correctional services department.
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The latest dramatic twist in the case of the double amputee runner was “a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions”, wrote Justice Lorimer Eric Leach.
Dolus eventualis refers to whether a person foresees the possibility that his or her action will cause death but carries on regardless.
Judge Thokozile Masipa convicted him of culpable homicide, or negligent killing, but acquitted him of murder.
He said that the sprinter “never offered an acceptable explanation for” shooting Steenkamp through a bathroom door in his home.
He called Pistorius’ testimony about his actions “unacceptable”, “vacillating” and “contradictory”.
Judge Leach dismissed Pistorius’ argument that he was acting in self-defence, finding that there was no rational basis for him to have feared for his life.
Pistorius had said he accidentally shot dead Ms Steenkamp after believing there was an intruder in his house. Under this principle, the identity of the victim should not matter, the judge said.
Steenkamp’s family members were present, keeping a stony-faced throughout the court proceeding, but hugged after hearing the verdict.
The International Paralympic Committee said Pistorius would be barred from competition – including the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro – until he completed his sentence.
“Strictly speaking, because murder wasn’t a separate charge but was tied in with the culpable homicide charge, it’s not considered technically…as reconsidering a case where there has been a complete acquittal”, said Phelps, a senior lecturer in law at the University of Cape Town.
Phelps said Pistorius had one final avenue of appeal remaining – to take the case to the country’s Constitutional Court. The prosecution tried to depict Pistorius as an angry boyfriend who intentionally shot his model-girlfriend as she cowered behind a toilet door.
“I’m overwhelmed. The women of South Africa, the women of the whole world, have won today”, league spokeswoman Mapaseka Nkoane said outside the court.
“I certainly don’t think that it is the end of the story”.
A spokesman for Pistorius’s camp said his defense is considering his legal options.
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Leach said the courts would take into account time already served in the sentencing.
