(Photo Credit: Google Images)
Celebrated athlete Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of culpable homicide in the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. Culpable homicide is equivalent to manslaughter in the United States.
Sarah Lyall and Alan Cowell of The New York Times write:
“Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa agreed to extend Mr. Pistorius’s bail until his sentencing hearing begins, on Oct. 13. She said she believed the defense’s explanation that Mr. Pistorius had sold his property to pay his legal fees and dismissed suggestions that he would try to flee the country.
The verdict marked the culmination of a closely watched drama that transfixed many around the world. Mr. Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, 29, in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013, saying he believed an intruder had entered his home. Wielding a handgun loaded with hollow-point ammunition, he opened fire on a locked toilet cubicle door only to discover when he broke the door down with a cricket bat that Ms. Steenkamp was inside. The prosecution sought to prove that he intended to kill her, but he called her death an accident and a mistake.”
Pistorius was found innocent of premeditated murder. He faces five to 15 years in prison for this conviction.
Read more at The New York Times.
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