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He wasted TWO lives: Oscar
Pistorius was not in court for this hearing (Image source: BBC Africa Live)
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The full text of this morning's judgement, which converted Oscar Pistorius' conviction from
manslaughter to murder has now been made available online. It's quite long and
technical, but here's a snippet from close to the end, explaining one of the
legal arguments for the decision taken by the panel of judges in the appeal
court:
"In
the result, on count 1 in the indictment the accused ought to have been found
guilty of murder on the basis that he had fired the fatal shots with criminal
intent in the form of dolus eventualis.
BBC Africa Live report continues:
"As
a result of the errors of law referred to, and on a proper appraisal of the
facts, he ought to have been convicted not of culpable homicide on that count
but of murder.
"In
the interests of justice the conviction and the sentence imposed in respect
thereof must be set aside and the conviction substituted with a conviction of
the correct offence."
What is dolus eventualis?
It's a South African legal
term which refers to unintended but foreseeable murder, a lesser charge than
"dolus directus", which refers to deliberate murder.
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