Oscar Pistorius has filed papers opposing the state’s application to appeal his culpable homicide conviction and sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Defence attorney Brian Webber said according to papers filed last week, Judge Thokozile Masipa correctly found that prosecutors couldn’t prove Pistorius had an intention to kill his girlfriend when he fired four hollow-point bullets through a locked toilet door at his home.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued in an eight-month trial at the High Court in Pretoria, the capital, that the athlete murdered Steenkamp.
Judge Masipa cleared Pistorius, 27, of murder charges last month before sentencing him for five years in jail on a conviction of manslaughter for the death in the early morning hours of February 14, 2013.
Pistorius, who says he thought Steenkamp was an intruder in his home, can be transferred to house arrest after spending 10 months in jail, under the terms of the sentencing.
The sentence handed down to Pistorius was “inappropriate and shockingly light for someone that killed an innocent person with gross negligence where his conduct bordered on dolus eventualis,” or murder, South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority argued in its November 4 application to have the jail term and verdict reviewed.
Masipa, as the presiding judge in the case, will rule on December 9 whether the appeal may proceed.
Credit: Bloomberg
