The Supreme Court of Appeal on Thursday swept away the trial judge’s initial ruling in Pistorius’ case, saying she made legal errors and ignored key evidence in a confusing judgment.
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On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned a lower court’s manslaughter conviction of the runner.
Pistorius was released on parole on October 19, having spent one day less than a year in prison for shooting dead model Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013.
Journalists wait outside the home of Oscar Pistorius’ uncle Arnold Pistorius in Pretoria December 3, 2015.
“We’ve got justice, we’ve got respect for Reeva, we’ve got respect for women” Mrs Steenkamp said to Sky News this week.
“He ought to have been convicted not of culpable homicide… but of culpable murder”, the judge added.
Under South African law, a murder conviction hinges on the offender’s intention to kill, according to South African criminal law expert Mannie Witz. “My feeling is that he’s done a year, so looking at all the factors, maybe nine, 10 years in prison”.
Convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius’s lawyers remained tight-lipped on Friday over his possible bail application.
Pistorius, 29, insisted he shot Steenkamp by mistake, thinking there was an intruder behind the door of a toilet cubicle in his home. He does have the option to appeal, but as BBC reports, only if his attorneys believe that his constitutional rights were violated by the appeal court judges – setting the bar fairly high; a hard expectation to meet. Reeva Steenkamp’s mother, June, closed her eyes as the decision was read out in the Bloemfontein court. But Judge Thokozile Masipa, who originally handed a culpable homicide sentence and who is responsible for updating the sentence, could give him more than 15 years.
However, he grew up playing sports with prosthetics and became a multiple Paralympic champion known as the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fiber running blades.
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“I think it really comes to an end now”, said Witz.
