PRETORIA, South Africa: Did Oscar Pistorius get away with murder? Judge Thokozile Masipa's decision to acquit Pistorius of murder has left many in South Africa asking that question. Masipa's decision hinged on a little-known Latin term and a complex section of South African law: "Dolus eventualis."
The term means a defendant should be convicted of murder if it's found that they foresaw a possibility that someone would die as a result of their unlawful actions, but continued with the actions anyway and the person was killed. In acquitting the world-famous athlete of murder on Friday, Judge Masipa ruled that Pistorius did not identify at the time that someone might die before he shot four times through a door into a small toilet cubicle, killing Reeva Steenkamp.
Many South Africans -- legal analysts and others -- find fault with Masipa's conclusion.
Here's why the judge ruled the way she did:
