South African “Tragedy of Shakespearean Proportions”
Sunday, December 6th, 2015December 7, 2015
Oscar Pistorius is a South African athlete who gained international fame as the first amputee track athlete to qualify for the Summer Olympic Games. But for more than two years, Pistorius has been better known as the center of a murder story, a story that took another dramatic turn on December 3.
In February 2013, Pistorius killed his girlfriend, South African model Reeva Steenkamp, in his house. Pistorius shot Steenkamp four times through a locked bathroom door, saying he mistook her for an intruder. In September 2014, a judge convicted Pistorius of “culpable homicide,” a charge in South African law that means unintentionally but unlawfully killing a person. Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison. State prosecutors appealed the verdict, seeking a conviction on more severe charges.
On December 3, a South African judge overturned the earlier ruling and found Pistorius guilty of murder. The judge said that the original court judgment had been “fundamentally flawed.” The judge also called the circumstances surrounding Steenkamp’s death “a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.” Pistorius’s jail term has not been decided, but he faces up to 15 years in prison. Pistorius can appeal the verdict by taking the case to South Africa’s Constitutional Court.
Additional World Book articles:
- Disability (2007) (a Back in time report)
- Disability (2012) (a Back in time report)
- South Africa (2013) (a Back in time report)
- Crime (2014) (a Back in time report)