Oscar Pistorius was convicted of murder Thursday by a South African appeals court that overturned his previous manslaughter conviction in the 2013 shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Prosecutors said Pistorius shot Steenkamp during an argument, while the defense said Pistorius killed Steenkamp by mistake, thinking she was an intruder.
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Delivering the verdict on Thursday, Justice Eric Leach said: “As a result of the errors of law referred to and on a proper appraisal of the facts, he ought to have been convicted not of culpable homicide on that count, but of murder”. Please note that comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language and will be removed accordingly.
Justice Leach said Pistorius must have foreseen that firing into the toilet would likely have killed whoever was inside – but he went ahead anyway. Later, the uncle drove off in a vehicle.
Judge Thokozile Masipa, who heard the trial, ruled that Pistorius could not have known that Steenkamp was behind the door when he fired and acquitted him of the murder charge. He spent one year out of his five-year sentence in jail.
This morning, the appeals court officially reversed the decision of the original trial and the athlete could now face up to 15 years in prison!
Reeva Steenkamp’s mother, June, sat quietly in the courtroom during the announcement, which was shown live on television.
The ruling rested over the concept of dolus eventualis, or whether Pistorius should have foreseen his actions would lead to death.
” ‘Let us now all get on with our lives, ‘ Barry Steenkamp said”.
“The issue of double jeopardy hasn’t really been robustly debated in this particular context since the advent of our constitution, and I do think there are grounds for debate on reappraising the current approach”, she said.
The disgraced paralimpian’s family said in a brief statement they were analyzing with lawyers the possibility of appealing. The appeals court can also order a retrial or rule that the manslaughter conviction was correct.
On Tuesday, journalists got a look at Pistorius’ former cell during a tour of a maximum security prison.
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The austere cell is set apart from the main prison in an area with a room for just one other inmate. In doing so he becomes an worldwide celebrity, he meets a young woman of great natural beauty and a successful model, romance blossoms, and then, ironically on Valentine’s Day, all is destroyed when he takes her life.
