High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa is due to decide on the sentence at a hearing starting Monday in Pretoria, the capital, at the same court where the Paralympic gold medalist was tried for shooting Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013 with four hollow-point bullets through a locked toilet door.
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Legal experts have said that Pistorius’ best chance of avoiding South Africa’s minimum murder sentence will be to testify about his deep remorse and how he has been rehabilitated following his year behind bars.
A panel of judges decided that instead of being sentenced for culpable homicide, Pistorius should have been found guilty of murder – a conviction which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years imprisonment.
The double-amputee killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for an intruder when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.
“But exactly how that is going to be taken into account by the court is hard to predict”. South Africa’s Constitutional Court rejected Pistorius’ attempt in March to appeal.
The 29-year-old was released from a maximum security hospital cell last October after nearly a year behind bars, before being released to continue his sentence under house arrest at his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria.
Pistorius’s jail sentence could be reduced due to time already spent in prison and mitigating factors, including his disability.
MEMBERS of the South African Prisoners Unemployed Political Party travelled eight hours to support former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius in Pretoria on Monday.
Since being convicted of murder, he has been on bail and allowed to leave the house at set times, but not travel further than 20 kilometres without permission.
ITV has released a statement confirming the one-off show entitled Oscar Pistorius: The Interview, which will feature a one-on-one with the athlete by investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas.
Last month, a new book presented fresh evidence in the case after an analysis of crime scene photographs and post mortem results which had not been put before the original trial. In special circumstances, however, a judge can reduce that sentence.
He has always denied killing Steenkamp in a rage and, during his dramatic trial in 2014, sobbed in the dock as details of his lover’s death were examined in excruciating detail.
Scholtz told the court Pistorius had suffered financially and found asking others for assistance humiliating.
Barry Steenkamp, the father of murdered model Reeva Steenkamp, could give evidence for the first time in the trial of Oscar Pistorius this week.
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In case somehow you missed the whole saga, Pistorius is a South African athlete who overcame extreme odds as a double amputee to compete in the 2012 London Olympics on his signature carbon-fiber blades (hence his nickname, “Blade Runner”). He claimed he believed she was a burglar and the original trial judge believed him, finding him guilty of manslaughter.
