Oscar Pistorius, born Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius, is a convicted murderer and former professional sprinter from South Africa.
He was born on November 22, 1986, in Sandton, South Africa, and at the age of 11 months, both of his feet had been amputated due to a congenital abnormality, with the outside of both feet and both fibulae were gone. Oscar Pistorius attended Constantia Kloof Primary School and Pretoria Boys High School before enrolling at the University of Pretoria to pursue a bachelor of commerce (B.Com.) in business management with a minor in sports science.
Why did Oscar Pistorius kill his girlfriend?
Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp at his Pretoria home early Thursday morning, 14 February 2013. Pistorius admitted to shooting Steenkamp, but said he mistook her for an intruder. On February 15, 2013, Pistorius was arrested and formally charged with murder in a Pretoria court. The entire trial was carried live on audio, with some of it also broadcast live on television.
On September 11-12, 2014, judge Thokozile Masipa issued a decision finding Pistorius not guilty of murder but convicted of culpable homicide in the death of Reeva Steenkamp and reckless endangerment with a pistol in a restaurant. He was condemned to a maximum of five years in jail for culpable homicide on October 21, 2014, with a concurrent three-year suspended prison sentence for reckless endangerment.
He was granted parole on October 19, 2015, after serving one-sixth of his sentence. The state, however, contested the judgment, and in December 2015, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the culpable homicide conviction, finding him guilty of murder instead. Masipa sentenced Pistorius to six years in prison for a murder on July 6, 2016. The state filed another appeal, this time for a longer sentence. The Supreme Court of Appeal then ordered a 15-year term, with the time he had already served reducing the penalty to 13 years and five months.
