South African appeals court convicts Pistorius of murder

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African appeals court on Thursday convicted Oscar Pistorius of murder, overturning a lower court's conviction of the double-amputee Olympian on the lesser charge of manslaughter for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to death in 2013.

Justice Lorimer Eric Leach of the Supreme Court of Appeal delivered the ruling by the five-judge tribunal in Bloemfontein and directed the trial court, the North Gauteng High Court, to impose sentence.

"The accused ought to have been found guilty of murder on the basis that he had fired the fatal shots with criminal intent," Leach said to the courtroom, in which Steenkamp's mother sat.

On Tuesday, journalists got a look at his former cell during a tour of a maximum security prison.

Pistorius, a multiple Paralympic champion, became one of the world's most famous athletes and the first amputee to run at the Olympics and the able-bodied world championships.

Leach described the story of Pistorius and Steenkamp as a "human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions" whose legal aftermath was conducted in the glare of international attention.