JOHANNESBURG (AP) \u2014 An appeals court decided Thursday that Oscar Pistorius got away with murder when he stood trial for killing his girlfriend, a ruling that will almost certainly send the disgraced Olympian back to prison.<\/p>\n
The court overturned his conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter in the 2013 shooting death of model Reeva Steenkamp and instead found Pistorius guilty of murder.<\/p>\n
The latest dramatic twist in the case of the double amputee runner was \u201ca human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions,\u201d wrote Justice Lorimer Eric Leach.<\/p>\n
Pistorius, who is under house arrest at his uncle\u2019s mansion in Pretoria, was not in the Bloemfontein courtroom for the verdict. Steenkamp\u2019s mother, June, sat impassively as Leach read the verdict.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old Pistorius served one year of a five-year sentence before being put under house arrest in October.<\/p>\n
The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, but exceptional circumstances in the case of the former track star, including time served, his disability and his status as a first-time offender, could mean a lower sentence.<\/p>\n
Sentencing is up to the North Gauteng High Court, where Pistorius was tried. South African media said Judge Thokozile Masipa, who presided over the original trial, will handle the matter. No sentencing date has been set.<\/p>\n
The Pistorius family said in a statement: \u201cThe legal team will study the finding and we will be guided by them in terms of options going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steenkamp\u2019s father, Barry, told South African television channel ANN7 that the judgment was fair.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us now all get on with our lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His voice breaking with emotion, he said of his daughter: \u201cI\u2019m sure she\u2019ll be able to rest as well now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pistorius\u2019 trial riveted people around the world because of its gripping saga of a celebrity athlete\u2019s plunge from grace by his own actions.<\/p>\n
His legs were amputated below the knees when he was 11 months old because he was born without fibula bones due to a congenital defect. However, he grew up playing sports with prosthetics and became a multiple Paralympic champion known as the \u201cBlade Runner\u201d for his carbon-fiber running blades. The sight of Pistorius racing at the 2012 London Olympics was one of the enduring and inspirational images of the games.<\/p>\n
\u201cA young man overcomes huge physical disabilities to reach Olympian heights as an athlete,\u201d Leach said while delivering the ruling on behalf of the five-judge appeals court.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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\u2019s Day, all is destroyed when he takes her life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The trial also highlighted the issue of violence against women. Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model who appeared in a reality TV show, had planned to give a speech touching on domestic abuse and family relationships at a school on the day she died.<\/p>\n
Pistorius insisted he shot Steenkamp by mistake, thinking there was an intruder behind the door of a toilet cubicle in his home. The prosecution said Pistorius shot Steenkamp during an argument.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors in South Africa can appeal convictions on questions of law, and Leach found that Masipa committed an \u201cerror in law\u201d by incorrectly applying a legal principle called \u201cdolus eventualis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under that concept, a person can be convicted of murder if he or she foresaw the possibility of someone dying through their actions and went ahead anyway.<\/p>\n
Leach said that regardless of who Pistorius said he thought was behind the door, he should have known someone could be killed if he fired.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe accused ought to have been found guilty of murder on the basis that he had fired the fatal shots with criminal intent,\u201d Leach said.<\/p>\n
He also witheringly described Pistorius\u2019 often tearful trial testimony as \u201cvacillating and untruthful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johann Engelbrecht, a criminal lawyer who is not involved in the Pistorius case, said it is doubtful the former athlete\u2019s lawyers could challenge the murder conviction by appealing to the Constitutional Court. He speculated that prosecutors would want the sentencing process to proceed swiftly rather than let Pistorius remain under house arrest for an extended period.<\/p>\n
There was no sign of Pistorius outside the home of his uncle, Arnold. As the judge began to read the decision, broadcast live on TV, the uncle was seen rushing into the house. Later, the uncle drove off in a car.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Lynsey Chutel contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JOHANNESBURG (AP) \u2014 An appeals court decided Thursday that Oscar Pistorius got away with murder when he stood trial for killing his girlfriend, a ruling that will almost certainly send the disgraced Olympian back to prison. The court overturned his conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter in the 2013 shooting death of model Reeva […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23646"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}