JOHANNESBURG — A South African appeals court on Thursday convicted
Oscar Pistorius of murder, overturning a lower court's conviction of the
double-amputee Olympian on the lesser charge of manslaughter for
shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to death in 2013.
Justice Lorimer Eric Leach of the Supreme Court of Appeal delivered the
ruling by the five-judge tribunal in Bloemfontein and directed the
trial court, the North Gauteng High Court, to impose sentence. He did
not specify when that should happen. The former track star is currently
under house arrest at his uncle's mansion in Pretoria.
"The accused ought to have been found guilty of murder on the basis
that he had fired the fatal shots with criminal intent," Leach said to
the courtroom, in which Steenkamp's mother sat.
A 15-year prison sentence is the minimum punishment for murder in South
Africa. However, the law allows for a lesser sentence to be imposed in
exceptional circumstances.
Pistorius was placed under house arrest in October after serving one
year in prison. He had been sentenced to five years in prison for
manslaughter and got out early in line with corrections department
regulations. The trial court can also consider whether he should be
shown leniency because he is disabled and is a first-time offender.
Pistorius, 29, killed Steenkamp in the early morning of Valentine's
Day. He insisted he thought she was an intruder behind the door of a
toilet cubicle in his home. The prosecution said Pistorius shot
Steenkamp during an argument.
