South Africa: State Wins Right to Appeal Pistorius Conviction

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pistorius

A High Court in Pretoria Judge Thokozile Masipa on Wednesday dismissed an application by the State against Oscar Pistorius’s sentence but granted the appeal against his conviction of culpable homicide.

“In the result in respect of the application… the following order is granted. One, the application for leave to appeal against sentence is dismissed,” she said.

However, on the application against his conviction, she said: “I am satisfied that the points raised by the applicant [the State] are indeed a question of law.”

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein will deal with the judgment to re-examine the matter of dolus eventualis in the case.

On October 21, Masipa sentenced Pistorius to five years in jail for the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

He shot her dead through the locked door of the toilet in his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day last year, apparently thinking she was an intruder.

 The State filed papers last month calling for a heavier conviction and harsher sentence to be imposed on the athlete.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel on Tuesday argued that the sentence imposed on Pistorius was “shockingly inappropriate”.

However, Barry Roux, for Pistorius, said the law was correctly applied in convicting and sentencing.

Roux said the State was not allowed to appeal based on factual findings the court made, but only on a point of law.

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Pistorius was sentenced to a further three years, suspended for five years, for discharging a firearm at Tasha’s restaurant in Sandton, Johannesburg, in January 2013.

 

Source: allafrica.com