South Africa’s top appeals court could send “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius back to jail on Thursday for at least 15 years for killing his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day 2013 in a sensational case that continues to fascinate and divide the nation.
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“Guilty of murder, with the accused having criminal intent”, Judge Eric Leach told the court in South Africa’s judicial capital Bloemfontein in a dramatic legal reversal.
He never gave a convincing explanation for why he fired four bullets at the person behind the door, without even a warning shot, the appeal court said.
Pistorius has been living with his uncle in Pretoria since being released on house arrest in October, performing community service once a fortnight under his conditions of parole.
Pistorius will have to return to court to be re-sentenced, for murder.
In worldwide news, Pistorius was the fourth most popular news item in the last 24 hours garnering 10.6% of the coverage.
“The legal team will study the finding, and we will be guided by them in terms of options going forward”, the family said in a statement.
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.
The panel of appeal judges described the case as “a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions” in their written judgement.
State prosecutors who lodged the appeal say Pistorius meant to kill Steenkamp and that she fled to a toilet during a row.
The paralympic runner was convicted of culpable homicide for shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Some legal experts were anxious that the verdict by Judge Masipa could have set a bad legal precedent in a country with one of the highest crime rates in the world. The trial court can also consider whether he should be shown leniency because he is disabled and is a first-time offender.
He said he thought Ms. Steenkamp was still in his bedroom at the time.
Speaking to Sky News, June Steenkamp, Reeva’s mother, felt the new decision was right.
The original court judgment ruled that because he didn’t know that it was Steenkamp behind the door, dolus eventualis didn’t apply.
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And it’s an expensive case to take as well – and, as you would imagine now, Pistorius is broke.
