Pistorius sentenced to murder on appeal
Print Edition
South Africa's "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius was found guilty yesterday of murdering his girlfriend, in an appeal court ruling that could see him sent back to prison for up to 15 years.
The Supreme Court upgraded the 29-year-old Paralympian's sentence on appeal to murder from “culpable homicide”, for which he had received a five-year sentence.
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. He was meant to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest.
The athlete, known for the carbon fibre prosthetic blades he uses when running, will be sentenced for the new murder conviction by a lower court at a date still to be determined.
It is likely his lawyers could argue that his physical disability and mental stress should be considered as mitigating circumstances.
Prosecutors appealed against the original ruling, saying Pistorius should be convicted of murder for firing four shots through a locked toilet door, in a case that attracted worldwide interest and continues to fascinate and divide South Africa.
“This case involves a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions,” Judge Eric Leach said as he started reading the ruling.
“A young man overcomes huge physical disabilities to reach Olympian heights as an athlete. In doing so he becomes an international 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.”
Leach added that “as a matter of common sense, at the time the fatal shots were fired the possibility of the death of a person behind the door was clearly an obvious result.”
State prosecutors say Pistorius intended to kill Steenkamp and that she fled to the toilet during a row. Pistorius denies deliberately killing Steenkamp, saying he mistook her for an intruder at his home.
The case has prompted a fierce debate in a country beset by high levels of violent crime. Some rights groups say the star got preferential treatment.
At the original trial last year, Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled that the state had failed to prove intent or “dolus eventualis”, a legal concept that centers on a person being held responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their actions.
Some legal experts were worried that the verdict by Judge Masipa could have set a bad legal precedent.
“He had intention to kill regardless of who was behind the door. That should have been the conviction of the trial court,” said Mahlatsi Malaka, a private advocate.
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