A South African appeals court Thursday convicted Oscar Pistorius (above) of murder, overturning a lower court's conviction of the double-amputee Olympian on the lesser charge of manslaughter for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to death in 2013. Justice Lorimer Eric Leach of the Supreme Court of Appeal delivered the ruling by the five-judge tribunal in Bloemfontein and directed the trial court, the North Gauteng High Court, to impose sentence. The former track star is currently under house arrest at his uncle's mansion in Pretoria.
"The accused ought to have been found guilty of murder on the basis that he had fired the fatal shots with criminal intent," Leach said to the courtroom, in which Steenkamp's mother sat. A 15-year prison sentence is the minimum punishment for murder in South Africa. However, the law allows for a lesser sentence to be imposed in exceptional circumstances. Pistorius was placed under house arrest in October after serving one year in prison. He had been sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter and got out early in line with corrections department regulations. The trial court can also consider whether he should be shown leniency because he is disabled and is a first-time offender. Pistorius, 29, killed Steenkamp in the early morning of Valentine's Day. He insisted he thought she was an intruder behind the door of a toilet cubicle in his home. The prosecution said Pistorius shot Steenkamp during an argument.
