The Supreme Court of Appeal on Thursday found Pistorius guilty of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013, throwing out his earlier conviction on the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
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While the minimum sentence for a murder conviction in S.A.is 15-years, judges have the ability to apply some discretion in such sentencing matters – effectively allowing them to reduce the duration of the sentence to some degree.
Pistorius was eligible for parole after serving 10 months of his five-year term for culpable homicide, which was one-sixth of his sentence.
Gina Myers, one of Reeva Steenkamp’s closest friends, believes that the recent ruling on convicted Paralympics runner Oscar Pistorius would bring much needed peace to the late model’s family.
Pistorius was convicted of murdering his former girlfriend on Valentine’s Day 2013 and faces being sent back to jail until he is well into his forties.
That’s the chance Pistorius took when he fired hollow bullets – created to fragment on impact – from a 9mm pistol through the door of a “very small” toilet cubicle, Leach said.
The appeal centered on a form of intent in South African law, dolus eventualis, which means that a person can foresee that his or her actions may kill but goes ahead anyway.
He spent a year in prison and was released in October to serve the remainder of his five-year sentence under house arrest.
“He did not know whether that person constituted any threat”, Leach said in a damning rejection of the testimony from Pistorius and the original trial judge’s ruling.
Pistorius is now under house-arrest, but will have to return to court to be further sentenced.
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Pistorius, a multiple Paralympic champion, became the first amputee to run at the Olympics and the able-bodied world championships. I don’t think he will be able to handle it. “I feel it’s a fair decision that the judge gave”, Steenkamp said in a brief interview on local television station ANN7, before breaking down in tears. He insisted he thought she was an intruder behind a door in his home.
