Oscar Pistorius appeal: Murder verdict sought by South Africa prosecutors

South African judges have heard an appeal on whether athlete Oscar Pistorius should be convicted of murder instead of culpable homicide. The Paralympian was transferred to house arrest last month after serving one year of his five-year term for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius, 28, shot her through a locked toilet door in 2013 but insists he thought she was an intruder.

State prosecutor Gerrie Nel outlined the state’s case for the verdict to be changed to murder from culpable homicide, or manslaughter. He told the panel of five judges that Masipa had erred in her application of the legal principle of dolus eventualis, and that she was wrong to conclude that Pistorius had not foreseen that firing four shots into a locked door was likely to kill or injure the person behind it. The appeal court judges did not consider the facts but the application of the law, in a highly technical case.

The five judges who heard the appeal are among the most senior in South Africa, and came from across the racial and gender divide. They did not take new evidence, but heard arguments from both sides on whether the trial judge interpreted the law correctly, especially the charge of dolus eventualis, also known as common-law murder.

In South African law, this charge applies if the accused knew they might kill someone but still went ahead with their course of action. The prosecution argued that Pistorius should have foreseen that by firing four shots through a locked door into a toilet cubicle, the person behind the door would have been killed.

No date was set for the judgment that could see Pistorius return to prison. The ruling will rely on a majority decision among the five judges, several of analysts have argued that the bench was indeed entitled to impose its own verdict should it accept the state’s argument.