PRETORIA, (Reuters) – Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide yesterday, escaping the more serious charge of murder for the killing of his girlfriend, and will now battle to avoid going to prison.
The 27-year-old double amputee, who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, stood impassively in the dock, his hands folded in front of him, as Judge Thokozile Masipa delivered her verdict.
Pistorius was also convicted of firing a pistol under the table of a packed Johannesburg restaurant but cleared of two other firearms charges – illegal possession of ammunition and firing a pistol out of the sun-roof of a car.
Masipa based her decision of culpable homicide on the reasoning that Pistorius had acted negligently when he fired four shots from a 9mm pistol into a toilet door in his luxury Pretoria home, killing Steenkamp, who was behind it, almost instantly.
He said it was a tragic error, and that he had believed he was shooting at an intruder.
Steenkamp’s mother June was unconvinced, saying: “Justice was not served.”
“I just don’t feel this is the right sentence,” she told the U.S. network NBC. “I won’t believe his story and that’s the difference.”
Culpable homicide – South Africa’s equivalent of manslaughter – carries up to 15 years in prison but, given Pistorius’s lack of previous convictions, legal experts said he could avoid a custodial sentence altogether.
“It could range from a suspended sentence to a stiff jail sentence. It could even be the imposition of a fine or community service, or it could be … house arrest,” said Stephen Tuson, law professor at Johannesburg’s University of Witwatersrand.
“The court will take into account the degree of negligence or recklessness.”
Criminal law expert Martin Hood expected a non-custodial sentence, telling ENCA television: “He’s almost certainly, in my opinion, not going to be going to jail.”
SENTENCING
Masipa set sentencing for Oct. 13 and granted a bail extension. Flanked by police and bodyguards, a stone-faced Pistorius made his way out of the court through a scrum of reporters, television cameras and onlookers.
“We never had any doubt about Oscar’s version of events,” his uncle Arnold Pistorius told reporters. “It won’t bring Reeva back, but our hearts go out to her family and friends.”
Before the shooting, Pistorius was a symbol of triumph over adversity, recovering from having both his legs amputated as a baby to win six gold medals at three Paralympics running on carbon-fibre prosthetics, earning the nickname ‘Blade Runner’.
He was also responsible for taking athletes with disabilities into the mainstream, competing against able-bodied runners at the London 2012 Olympics.
