Supreme court convicts Olympian of murder

While Pistorius had been cleared of planned homicide accusations in September 2014, he was later sentenced to five years in jail for his lesser allegation of the punishable crime, otherwise called careless murdering.

In October a year ago, Judge Thokozile Masipa found Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide – after he shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the bathroom of their Pretoria home on Valentines Day in 2013, claiming to have mistaken her for a burglar.

Eyewitness News understands prosecutor Gerrie Nel and defence advocate Barry Roux have been in talks to agree on a date for Pistorius to apply for bail.

She must now give Pistorius a new sentence, likely to be in the new year.

Members of the ruling African National Congress party’s Women’s League welcomed the new ruling, dancing and singing outside the court.

Oscar Pistorius, Olympic athlete, has been on house arrest since spending a year of a five-year sentence in jail.

“Let us now all get on with our lives”, he said.

Pistorius killed Steenkamp at the peak of his fame, and he has since lost his glittering sports career, lucrative contracts and status as a global role model for the disabled.

Pistorius’ lawyers argued that he shot in self-defense, painting the picture of a scared amputee negligently firing at an unidentified intruder.

Leach added that “as a matter of common sense, at the time the fatal shots were fired the possibility of the death of a person behind the door was clearly an obvious result”.

Johann Engelbrecht, a criminal lawyer who is not involved in the Pistorius case, said it is doubtful the former athlete’s lawyers could challenge the murder conviction by appealing to the Constitutional Court.

The trial court can also consider whether he should be shown leniency because he is disabled and a first-time offender.

Judge Leach said Judge Masipa had erred in the application of the concept, however.

“The suspicion was colossal at the beginning of today in light of the fact that we didn’t generally recognize what was going to happen”, June Steenkamp, Reeva’s mom, told Today’s Savannah Guthrie Thursday.

Pistorius can appeal to South Africa’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, but only if he is able to prove that his constitutional right to a fair trial was infringed during the highly publicized hearing, said Witz.

His voice breaking with emotion, he said of his daughter: “I’m sure she’ll be able to rest as well now”.