The court found him not guilty of murdering her. Picture: Themba Hadebe/AP/Pool.
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Prosecutors are persisting with a “failed case” by taking an appeal against Oscar Pistorius’ acquittal for murder to South Africa’s Supreme Court, the athlete’s lawyers said Wednesday.
The former athlete is serving five years in prison for shooting his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp dead at his home in South Africa in 2013, but prosecutors in the country are pushing for a retrial on a charge of murder.
In papers submitted to the court, Pistorius’ lawyers argued prosecutors were wrong to challenge the original verdict, and were using the appeal to try again with a murder case that had already been rejected by Judge Thokozile Masipa.
He said the first trial was subject to intense public scrutiny which would “contaminate and confuse” the reliability and objectivity of another hearing.
They also said Pistorius could not afford to pay for a new trial and that it would be prejudiced because of all the media coverage.
There, the judges have the power to either reject the prosecution appeal and rule Pistorius’ acquittal for murder was correct, order a retrial, or convict him of murder themselves. Appeals could be granted based on questions of law, not on the interpretation of the facts of the matter.
Mr Roux argues the State is trying to attack Ms Masipa’s finding that Pistorius did not intend to kill Ms Steenkamp, and that it was not allowed to do this. The Supreme Court of Appeal could also find that the law was not applied correctly in the case and send it back for a re-trial.
Roux says mitigating factors that the court should consider before making such an order include the extent and time duration of a trial, the complexity of it and the fairness to his client.
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Roux said dolus eventualis would have arisen if Pistorius had foreseen that Steenkamp could be in the toilet when he first four shots through the door. He was given yet another three-year sentence, suspended for firing a firearm in a restaurant. Pistorius was due in August to leave prison under house arrest until the justice minister made a last-minute intervention blocking his release.
