South Africa’s supreme court of appeal has found Oscar Pistorius guilty of murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, overturning a previous conviction for culpable homicide.
The court has ordered the original trial judge in Pretoria to impose a harsher sentence. No date has been set for this hearing. The minimum sentence for murder is 15 years in prison.
Pistorius is currently living under house arrest at his uncle’s home in Pretoria, having been freed from prison after serving less than a year behind bars. He will reportedly be allowed to remain in correctional supervision until a new sentence is handed down.
Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013, and later said he thought she was an intruder.
Justice Eric Leach, who read out an abridged version of the judgment on Thursday morning on behalf of the court, said: “The accused ought to have been found guilty of murder.” He described Steenkamp’s death as “a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions”.
As is custom, Pistorius and his family were not in the court in Bloemfontein as the judgment was delivered. June Steenkamp, Reeva’s mother, was seen sobbing on the stairs of the court in Bloemfontein after the judgment was read out. Her father, Barry, speaking from Port Elizabeth, said his family could finally get on with their lives.
Pistorius was released into house arrest in October having served one-fifth of his original five-year term, and has been performing court-mandated community service.
The appeal centred on the legal concept of dolus eventualis, or indirect intention – in layman’s terms, the question of whether Pistorius had foreseen the possibility that he might kill somebody when he fired four shots into the bathroom door.
The appeal court ruled (pdf) that the trial judge, Thokozile Masipa, had applied this concept incorrectly, saying her ruling was “confusing in various respects”.
Leach said Pistorius did have the requisite legal intention to be found guilty of murder. “In these circumstances, I have no doubt that in firing the fatal shots the accused must have foreseen that whoever was behind the toilet door might die, but reconciled with that event occurring, and gambled with that person’s life,” he said.
Leach was critical of Pistorius’s inconsistent testimony in the original trial. “In the light of these contradictions [in Pistorius’ testimony], one does not really know what his explanation is for having fired the fatal shots,” he said.
The Pistorius family issued a brief statement saying: “We have taken note of the judgment that has just been handed down by the supreme court of appeal. The legal team will study the finding and we will be guided by them in terms of options going forward. We will not be commenting any further at this stage.”
The African National Congress Women’s League, vocal critics of Masipa’s judgment, welcomed the new conviction. “We are happy with what the judges decided today,” said the Free State chair Mapaseka Nkoane. “We want to say to men out there – let the killings of women stop.”