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An appeals court in South Africa has convicted double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius of murdering his live-in girlfriend, a ruling that could send him back to prison for a minimum of 15 years.


The court ruled that the trial judge erred last year when she 

convicted Pistorius of "culpable homicide,"

 the equivalent of manslaughter, for killing Reeva Steenkamp by shooting her through a bathroom door in 2013.


In overturning the September 2014 verdict, Justice Lorimer Eric Leach of the Supreme Court of Appeal called the case "a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions," The Associated Press reports. The news service quotes the judge as saying:

Pistorius maintained that he shot Steenkamp, a former model, accidentally, because he believed an intruder had broken into their Pretoria home. Prosecutors argued that he shot her following an argument.


Judge Thokozile Masipa, who heard the trial, ruled that Pistorius could not have known that Steenkamp was behind the door when he fired and acquitted him of the murder charge. But as 

, the appeals court found that to be an error:


 said Leach also ruled that "the Supreme Court found that the original trial did not take into account all the circumstantial evidence involved in the case, including key police evidence, which was an error. The judges considered the ballistics evidence in particular to be crucial."


The verdict comes less than two months after Pistorius was released from prison on the lesser charge and placed under house arrest. He has been living with an uncle.


Under South African law, Pistorius will be sent back to prison, 

The BBC adds that Pistorius "can challenge the ruling in the constitutional court but only if his lawyers can argue that his constitutional rights have been violated." There do not appear to be grounds for such an appeal, it quoted legal expert Mannie Witz as saying.

Steenkamp's father, Barry, told South African media that he was relieved by the judgment and described it as fair, the AP said:

Crime, Law and Justice

Sports

Jim Zarroli

Author

A South African judge has ruled that the trial judge erred when she found the double-amputee sprinter known as the "Blade Runner" guilty on the lesser charge of "culpable homicide" last year.

Appeals court convicts Oscar Pistorius of murder

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