Oscar Pistorious Found Guilty Of Murdering His Girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of murder after a South African appeals court overturned his previous conviction on lesser charges in the death of his then girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, and found the Olympic sprinter guilty of murder, which could carry a sentence of at least 15 years in prison.

Pistorious is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence behind bars,

Pistorius will have to return to court to be re-sentenced, for murder, BBC reports.

The judgment was unanimous from the five justices presiding over the case at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, and Judge Eric Leach, in announcing the verdict, took a moment to marvel at the scope of the tragedy.

“This case involves a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions: a young man overcomes huge physical disabilities to reach Olympic 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.”

Pistorius, 29, shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp in their Pretoria home on Feb 14, 2013, firing through a closed bathroom door. At his trial in 2014, Pistorius testified that he believed she was a burglar. The trial judge found him guilty of culpable homicide, a lesser charge than that sought by the prosecution, one akin to manslaughter. Pistorius spent a year in prison, and is currently serving house arrest and performing community service.

While the appeals court said that Pistorius’s testimony was inconsistent, the basis for its ruling rested upon a South African legal concept called dolus eventualis—roughly, whether Pistorius should have been aware of the potential result of his actions, whether he intended that result or not. 

Credit:BBC