Independent Media Oscar Pistorius’s defence advocate, Barry Roux and State prosecutor Gerrie Nel share a moment inside the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
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Prosecutors began their submissions at the Supreme Court, arguing that a high court judge had made legal errors when she decided not to convict Pistorius of the more serious charge of murder previous year.
Masipa found Pistorius guilty past year of culpable homicide.
The judges had already studied the tens of thousands of pages of court transcript from Pistorius’ trial.
The state also alleges that Masipa was wrong to dismiss circumstantial evidence that it said proved the accused’s version of events to be impossible.
The Supreme Court of Appeal heard arguments that Pistorius could have foreseen he would kill someone when he fired four shots through the door of a locked bathroom cubicle. He said that because the door never opened, Pistorius couldn’t have known whether there was a 12-year-old child or a man armed with a machine gun in the cubicle when he opened fire.
Two of the justices questioned Roux intensely on whether Masipa erred in only linking “dolus eventualis”, the legal principle on intent to murder, to whether Pistorius thought Steenkamp was in the bedroom – without examining the possibility that Pistorius may have meant to kill an intruder.
Pistorius was released from prison recently and is now under house arrest.
The Paralympian was released from prison last month after serving one year of his five-year term for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The five judges questioned prosecutor Gerrie Nel and Roux for about three hours in the court in Bloemfontein, a city in central South Africa that is the country’s judicial capital, with Steenkamp’s mother June Steenkamp and many journalists in attendance.
The Olympic runner’s chief defense lawyer, Barry Roux, also presented arguments to the judges, who wore black robes and sat with red backing on elaborate wooden chairs.
‘We are saying he must stay in jail, ‘ said Khosi Mojapi, a 33-year-old member of the African National Congress Women’s League, outside the court building. Judge Thokozile Masipa at the Pretoria high court.
The proceedings are scheduled to last one day, with the judges expected to announce a future date to deliver their ruling.
It won a legal victory yesterday when an old precedent was overturned that blocked appeals in cases where judges had convicted a criminal of an alternative charge.
Curlewis said the judges’ decision on dolus eventualis would set a trend for future cases.
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“Whoever was behind the door, whether it was the late Reeva or an intruder or whoever it was, you can’t shoot in those circumstances especially when there is no imminent danger…”
