Pistorius, who shot Steenkamp through the door of a toilet cubicle in his home in 2013, was asked to stand and face Masipa as she announced his sentence in a wood-paneled courtroom in the South African capital, Pretoria.
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But in December 2015, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeals overturned that conviction and found him guilty of murder, finding that he must have know that he would likely kill whomever was behind the bathroom door, even if he didn’t know it was Steenkamp.
South Africa’s minimum sentence for murder is 15 years but the judge said “substantial and compelling circumstances” existed to give Pistorius a lesser sentence for shooting Steenkamp at his home in 2013.
Even though the minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, Judge Masipa chose to go with a shorter sentence for Oscar because she believes he’s a “fallen hero” who is “genuinely remorseful” over the situation.
The sentence handed down by judge Thokozile Masipa to the South African Paralympic gold medalist has been met with outrage and the judge has been branded an embarrassment to the justice system. His lawyers said they would not be appealing.
He will serve “between half and two thirds of the sentence” before he can apply for parole.
After the verdict was read, Pistorius, 29, who was dressed in a dark suit and white shirt quietly hugged his sister before he was whisked off to Khosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria to start serving his sentence.
In the interview – his first since the killing – Pistorius said that he believed Steenkamp would want him to devote his life to charity rather than return to prison. Masipa said she saw no evidence that Steenkamp’s murder was a case of domestic violence, despite public perception that it was.
Oscar Pistorius had originally been convicted of manslaughter before an appeals court upgraded it to murder in 2014.
In her decision, Masipa said Pistorius was a good candidate for rehabilitation, as he had proven during the 10 months he spent in prison before being eligible for parole under house arrest.
Steenkamp’s parents looked on quietly as the judge passed sentence.
The time Pistorious served on the culpable homicide charge might not count toward the new sentence, according to the BBC.
Many legal experts had expected the Olympic runner to get between 11 and 14 years.
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Pistorius, 29, made history by competing at the 2012 Olympics on his carbon-fiber running blades.
