Another Fascinating Turn In Oscar Pistorius Murder Trial

Former Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius will find out his sentence for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in June.

Pistorius’s lawyers last month failed in their final legal bid to reverse a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that upgraded his conviction from culpable homicide, the equivalent of manslaughter – to murder.

The double-amputee killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, on Valentine’s Day 2013, saying he mistook her for an intruder when he shot four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

“Your matter is postponed until June 13, and it will be heard until June 17, do you understand?” Judge Aubrey Ledwaba told Pistorius, who answered “Yes.”

The former Paralympic champion, 29, faces a minimum 15-year jail term for murder, which may be reduced due to time he has already spent in prison.

He was released from prison in October to live under house arrest at his uncle’s property in Pretoria after serving one year of his five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide.

 

Another Fascinating Turn In Oscar Pistorius Murder Trial

Oscar Pistorius moves to appeal murder conviction

The South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is to seek an appeal against his conviction for murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius killed Ms Steenkamp in February 2013 after firing four times through a locked toilet door.

A manslaughter verdict was overturned last month and a murder verdict introduced in its place.

The athlete’s defence has lodged papers at the Constitutional Court, urging a review of his murder conviction.

He is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail.

South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in December that the lower court had not applied correctly the rule of dolus eventualis – whether Pistorius knew that a death would be a likely result of his actions.

Source: BBC

Oscar Pistorius moves to appeal murder conviction