Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide yesterday, escaping the more serious charge of murder for the killing of his girlfriend, and will now fight to avoid going to prison.
The 27-year-old double amputee, who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, stood impassively in the dock, his hands folded in front of him, as Judge Thokozila Masipa delivered her verdict.
Pistorius was also convicted of firing a pistol under the table of a packed Johannesburg restaurant but cleared of two other firearms charges – illegal possession of ammunition and firing a pistol out of the sun-roof of a car.
Masipa based her culpable homicide decision on the fact Pistorius had acted negligently when he fired four shots from a 9mm pistol into a toilet door in his luxury Pretoria home, killing Steenkamp, who was behind it, almost instantly.
He said it was a tragic error after he mistook her for an intruder.
One aspect of the ruling has also sparked legal controversy, turning ordinary South Africans into overnight armchair experts on the vexed issue of “dolus eventualis”, a concept of intent that holds a person responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their actions.
While Masipa ruled that prosecutors had failed to prove explicit premeditation to kill Steenkamp – a decision that had been anticipated by many legal experts – she also cleared Pistorius of murder dolus eventualis.
A 2008 paper by KwaZulu Natal law professor Shannon Hoctor explained dolus eventualis as when a person "foresaw the possibility that the act in question...would have fatal consequences, and was reckless whether death resulted or not."
Culpable homicide – South Africa's equivalent to manslaughter – carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison but, given Pistorius' lack of previous convictions, he could avoid a custodial sentence altogether, legal experts said.
"He's almost certainly, in my opinion, not going to be going to jail," criminal law expert Martin Hood told South Africa's ENCA television.
Masipa set sentencing for October 13 and granted a bail extension. Flanked by police and bodyguards, a stone-faced Pistorius made his way out of the court through a scrum of reporters, television cameras and on-lookers.
South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority said it was "disappointed" not to have secured a premeditated murder conviction, but would not make any decision about an appeal until after sentencing.