South African prosecutors are considering whether to appeal after disgraced athlete Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to just six years for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The minimum jail sentence for culpable homicide in South Africa is typically 15 years in jail, but Judge Thokozile Masipa, citing mitigating circumstances, handed down a more lenient punishment.
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In her sentencing, Masipa said that, while the crime committed was serious, a long term of imprisonment will not serve justice in this case.
Told by a reporter that she had heard that the State was considering applying for leave to appeal, he said: “We will let them make that decision”.
Barry and June Steenkamp, the deceased’s parents, sat on the opposite side of the courtroom to Pistorius.
He hugged his sister after the verdict, and was taken to Pretoria’s Khosi Mampuru prison. The murder took place only months after those games, when Pistorius shot Steenkamp (his live-in girlfriend) through the door of a bathroom in his apartment. He has mainted he believed she was an intruder.
Pistorius was freed from prison last October after nearly a year behind bars to serve out the remainder of his five-year term under house arrest at his uncle’s house in a wealthy suburb of the capital. The year he served on his previous conviction will not count toward his murder sentence.
Before announcing the sentence in court today, Judge Masipa said that Pistorius’ life has been changed forever.
The sentencing is the latest act of a three-and-a-half year legal drama that has often played out on live television and shown the fall from grace of a runner once viewed as an inspiration to many for overcoming his disability.
She said Pistorius’ attempts to meet with the Steenkamp family to apologise for his actions were denied on several occasions and he was never given the opportunity to express his remorse. Pistorius had both legs amputated below the knees when he was 11 months old because of a congenital defect.
Sky’s Special Correspondent, Alex Crawford, said the initial reaction of Reeva Steenkamp’s family was that Judge Masipa’s sentence was “fair”.
“The law has run its course”, he was quoted by IOL as saying.
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She added of Judge Masipa: “First five years, now six years?”.
