The National Prosecuting Authority has said that they welcome the decision of the constitutional court and is ready to go ahead with sentencing in April. The court’s decision was made on Wednesday.
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Oscar Pistorius has an anxious month ahead of him, as he faces a potential 15-year prison sentence after his Constitutional Court bid to overturn his murder conviction failed on Thursday.
The athlete, nicknamed “Blade Runner” because of the prosthetic legs he uses to race, had filed papers to appeal against his conviction at the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, on January 11.
The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, though a judge can reduce that sentence for what the law describes as exceptional circumstances.
“We can confirm that Oscar Pistorius’ leave to appeal has been denied”, he said. Pistorius spent a year in jail on the manslaughter ruling and had been under house arrest since October, following a 10-month trial broadcast live on radio and TV.
Judge Aubrey Ledwaba ruled that he must have forseen that someone could be killed when he shot Miss Steenkamp four times through a locked toilet door on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
Pistorius said he had mistaken Reeva for an intruder hiding in the bathroom of his gated Pretoria home, but was arrested and charged with murder.
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Pistorius, a multiple Paralympic champion, became the first amputee to run at the Olympics and the able-bodied world championships. “The murder conviction will stand and there is nothing that he can do to change that”. He received a five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide and a concurrent three-year suspended prison sentence for a separate reckless endangerment conviction.
