Judge Masipa ruled out a murder verdict yesterday, but she has handed down a verdict of culpable homicide to the Paralympic star.
Yesterday the world watched to see Judge Thokozile Masipa start to delver her verdict on the Oscar Pistorius murder trial in Pretoria. The Paralympic star was accused of killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February last year and after a trial that began in March the South African was found not guilty of murder.
However, a charge of culpable homicide, a charge comparable to manslaughter, was still an option when the judge began day two of her verdict today. Before we got to that, Pistorius was found guilty of another charge of discharging a firearm in public in a restaurant and not guilty of another similar charge relating to a shot fired in a car and an illegal ammunition charge. The firearm charge Pistorius was found guilty of has a maximum sentence of five years.
Then Masipa turned to the final count of killing Steenkamp. After hinting at the possibility of a culpable homicide, Judge Masipa then delivered a verdict of guilty of culpable homicide.
The judge then asked Pistorius to take a seat while other legal matters were dealt with. We await a sentence for the athlete but there is no prescribed sentence for the offence in South African law.
UPDATE 12:15pm: Pistorius has been granted bail after a legal arguments for and against his release. The runner will now return to his uncle’s house before returning to court on October 13, when the sentencing hearing will begin.
Potentially he could face 20 years for the two charges he has been found guilty of but some experts in South African law are speculating he may not serve any jail time as this was his first time in front of the courts.
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