The 29-year-old double-amputee Olympian was found guilty last year of culpable homicide – the equivalent to manslaughter in South African law – for killing law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013.
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The Supreme Court say the lower court did not correctly apply to rule of “dolus eventualis”- which is whether Pistorius knew a death would likely result because of his actions.
Pistorius is now certain to head back to prison, because the South African legal system does not allow for someone to be placed under house arrest for more than five years. The appeals court that overturned the culpable homicide charge and instead found Pistorius guilty of murder didn’t have an issue with the lower court’s interpretation of the facts of the case, but rather its interpretation of the law.
Oscar Pistorius’ conviction for killing his girlfriend has been changed from manslaughter to murder.
Prosecutors had appealed the original manslaughter charge, saying the court was incorrect in its interpretation of Pistorius’s self-defense argument. Under exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the judge, possibly including his time served and his disability, Pistorius could receive a lesser sentence than the minimum.
It’s interesting to read some of the key quotes that came from the ruling – these are the words of Justic Eric Leach who read out the verdict.
On the morning of February 14, 2014, Pistorius loaded his gun and fired four shots through a locked bathroom door.
Ms Steenkamp’s mother June, who has said she does not want retribution, left the court room shedding tears and carrying a single red rose.
Pistorius, who is under house arrest as part of his parole conditions, did not attend the ruling Thursday.
The appeals court has referred the matter back to the High Court to impose a harsher penalty after it clarified several crucial legal principles and delved into the human tragedy of Steenkamp’s murder.
A date for the former athlete’s new sentencing will be announced in the city of Pretoria, where he had been tried and imprisoned.
“Let us now all get on with our lives”, Barry Steenkamp said. Consumed with emotion by his daughter’s death, voice cracking, he lamented, “I’m sure she’ll be able to rest as well now”. Pistorius claimed that he had thought Steenkamp was an intruder, an account previous Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa said “could reasonably be true”.
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Anneliese Burgess, the Pistorius family’s spokeswoman, said the family would wait for lawyers’ advice on what to do next.
