Reeva Steenkamp’s family may finally feel they’ve received justice after a South African appeals court convicted Oscar Pistorius of murder on Thursday.
via ESPN:
The Supreme Court of Appeal overturned a lower court’s conviction on the less serious charge of manslaughter, adding another twist to a case that riveted people around the world because of its gripping saga of a celebrity athlete’s plunge from grace by his own hand.
“The accused ought to have been found guilty of murder on the basis that he had fired the fatal shots with criminal intent,” Justice Lorimer Eric Leach said in the courtroom in Blomefontein, in which Steenkamp’s mother, June, sat impassively. Pistorius was not there.
The murder conviction means Pistorius will almost certainly go back to jail, where he spent one year of a 5-year prison sentence before being put under house arrest at his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria in October.
The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, but exceptional circumstances in the case of the former track star, including time already served, his disability and status as a first-time offender, could mean he’ll get a lower sentence.
