JOHANNESBURG (AP) The heart of the murder case against Oscar Pistorius has relied on a section of South African criminal law known by the Latin term of dolus eventualis. The Supreme Court of Appeal decided Thursday that a lower court's reading of that was faulty and overturned its manslaughter conviction against the athlete, convicting him of murder.
---
MURDER VS. CULPABLE HOMICIDE
Under South African law, a murder conviction hinges on the offender's intention to kill, according to South African criminal law expert Mannie Witz. Without intention, the killing is ruled as culpable homicide.
Pistorius' lawyers argued that the athlete shot in self-defense. The prosecution tried to depict Pistorius as an angry boyfriend who intentionally shot his model-girlfriend as she cowered behind a toilet door. In the trial, Judge Thokozile Masipa convicted Pistorius of culpable homicide, or negligent killing, and acquitted him of murder. In acquitting Pistorius of murder, Masipa ruled that Pistorius could not have anticipated that someone might die before he shot four times through a door into a toilet cubicle, killing Steenkamp.
---
THE LATIN TERMS BEHIND THE LAW
The principle of dolus eventualis rests on the idea that the perpetrator may have foreseen that someone would be killed by his actions, and went ahead anyway.
That's the chance Pistorius took when he fired hollow bullets - designed to fragment on impact - from a 9mm pistol through the door of a ''very small'' toilet cubicle, Justice Lorimer Eric Leach of the appeals court said.
''I have no doubt that in firing the fatal shots the accused must have foreseen and therefore did foresee that whoever was behind the toilet door might die, but reconciled himself to that event occurring and gambled with the person's life,'' said Leach.
--
BACK TO PRISON?
Now found guilty of murder, Pistorius faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years as a first time offender, said Witz. Under exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the judge, possibly including his time served and his disability, Pistorius could receive a lesser sentence than the minimum.
For now, Pistorius will remain under house arrest.
Under the manslaughter conviction, Pistorius was sentenced to five years in jail. According to South African law, an offender sentenced to five years or less may be released to correctional supervision after serving one-sixth of the term in prison. After a year, Pistorius was transferred from his cell in the medical ward of a Pretoria prison to his uncle's home - a red-bricked mansion with landscaped lawns in an affluent suburb.
---
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Ruling that a retrial is unnecessary, the Supreme Court of Appeal sent the case back to the trial court in Pretoria for sentencing. No date has been given for this new sentencing ruling. Masipa must now study the Supreme Court's ruling and hand down a new sentence, Witz said.
Pistorius can appeal to South Africa's highest court, the Constitutional Court, but he would have to prove that his constitutional right to a fair trial was infringed, said Witz.
''I think it really comes to an end now,'' said Witz.
The Pistorius family released a statement saying their lawyers would study the judgment.
