Oscar Pistorius's Sentence Upgraded To Murder

The South African state won its appeal against the initial culpable homicide sentence handed to the athlete for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Oscar Pistorius listens to his original judgment in Pretoria, Oct. 21.

Pool / Getty Images

Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius had his sentence for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 upgraded to murder in South Africa's Supreme Court in Bloemfontein Thursday morning.

Appeal Judge Lorimer Eric Leach said the verdict by the case's original judge, Thokozile Masipa — which led to Pistorius being found guilty of culpable homicide, or manslaughter — in October 2014, was "fundamentally flawed."

"He ought to have been convicted not of culpable homicide, but murder," Leach said.

Judge Eric Leach delivers his judgement in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, Dec. 3

Pool / Reuters

In his opening remarks, Judge Leach said the case was a "human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions."

"A young man overcomes huge physical disabilities to reach Olympian heights as an athlete. In doing so he becomes an international celebrity, he meets a young woman of great natural beauty and a successful model, romance blossoms, and then, ironically on Valentine's Day, all is destroyed when he takes her life," he said, according to NBC News.

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