South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeals on Thursday declared him guilty of murder, overturning that court’s conviction of manslaughter.
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South Africa’s Supreme Court of appeal said Masipa’s ruling of manslaughter was flawed in that she ignored key ballistic evidence.
Pistorius claims he mistook his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, for an intruder when he shot four times through a locked bathroom door at his Pretoria home, killing her. Prosecutors argued that he meant to kill Steenkamp.
A murder conviction carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in South Africa.
What follows now will be a matter of a possible appeal by Oscar Pistorius and the reality that he could serve a lengthy jail sentence in connection with Reeva Steenkamp’s untimely death.
Oscar Pistorius has had his conviction of culpable homicide changed to murder for the killing of his girlfriend on Valentine’s day in 2013.
Despite the appeal court’s ruling that Judge Masipa erred in her judgment, Judge Leach praised her for her “dignity and patience” in her conduct of the lengthy trial in the full glare of live television coverage.
The court will hand down Pistorius’s new sentence in early 2016, and he will likely remain under house arrest until then.
Pistorius will have to return to court to be re-sentenced, for murder.
Legal experts said Pistorius could try to go to the Constitutional Court, but it was unclear whether the case would be regarded as under its jurisdiction.
His defence in his trial was that he thought she was an intruder, and last year he was given a five-year jail sentence for “culpable homicide”.
“We have to convince the court that we are dealing with errors of law”, chief state prosecutor Gerrie Nel said.
“I have no doubt that in firing the fatal shots the accused must have foreseen that whoever was behind door might die”, Leach said.
A man walks past the house of Oscar Pistorius’ uncle in Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015.
Barry Steenkamp, Reeva’s father, welcomed the new verdict.
It was “common sense” that Pistorius must have known he was carrying out a potentially lethal act that “gambled with life” when he fired his gun through the closed toilet door, he said.
Steenkamp’s mother, June, present for the finding, was in tears after the decision.
The judge called the circumstances surrounding Steenkamp’s death “a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions”.
Pistorius, whose legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old, won six gold medals at three Paralympic Games.
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“The South African court is in recess right now, that’s for the holiday period”, Pistorius’ family spokesperson Anneliese Burgess said.
