Pistorius Found Guilty of Murder by SA Supreme Court of Appeal

BLOEMFONTEIN – A full panel of five judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa has found Oscar Pistorius guilty of murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, saying that the lower court erred in its decision of culpable homicide.

The ruling was read on Thursday by Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Eric Leach. He said there was legal intent or ‘dolus eventualis’ to kill whoever was in the bathroom that Pistorius fired four shots at – which was a key issue in the prosecution’s appeal. Leach sent the case back to the High Court for sentencing of Pistorius, who could face up to 15 years in jail.

In September 2014 High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa found Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide for the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 and he was sentenced to five years in jail. He was recently released into house arrest.

While Leach said that Masipa had ignored key evidence, especially of the police’s ballistics expert, and that parts of her decision were confusing, he also praised her handling of the case.

Before making his decision on the three points of the case, Leach went over the earlier court’s findings. He said the High Court had found that Pistorius did not fire with legal intent. He also said Pistroius was a poor witness, and he still did not know what Pistorius’ version of the events were, because it changed various times.

Going over the events of the evening in 2013 when the killing happened, he referred to Pistorius’ defense that he had felt vulnerable without his prosthetic legs on and that he suffered from anxiety. Leace said that Pistorius fired at the bathroom door from a heavy calibre weapon not one time, but four times.

“In these circumstances I have no doubt that in firing the fatal shots the accused must have foreseen that whoever was behind the bathroom door might die.”

Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel had earlier told the panel of five judges that Masipa had erred in her application of the legal principle of dolus eventualis, and that she was wrong to conclude that Pistorius had not foreseen that firing four shots into a locked door was likely to kill or injure the person behind it.

Leach said Masipa’s reasoning in the judgement was confusing. He said the question was not if Pistorius thought it was Reeva behind door, but if he could kill the person behind door.