State hopes for harsher sentence for Oscar

An application for leave to appeal against the conviction and sentence of paralympian Oscar Pistorius will be filed in the North Gauteng High Court within the next few days.

The decision to challenge Judge Thokozile Masipa’s decision to convict the double amputee on a count of culpable homicide as opposed to murder for the shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February last year, was made by state prosecutors Gerrie Nel and Andrea Johnson on Monday.

“Since 20 October the prosecution team has been working at studying the judgement, researching and also consulting with legal experts with the view to establish whether or not there are sufficient grounds to appeal both the judgment and sentence,” the NPA said in a media statement.

The appeal on conviction was based on the question of law, the NPA stated, adding that the merits and demerits of the NPA’s argument in this regard would become evident when the papers for leave to appeal were filed.

In the next few days, Judge Masipa will have to decide whether or not another judge could possibly reach another verdict in this regard. Should she reject the application, the NPA could approach the appellate division to have Masipa’s ruling overturned.

The state would seek to have Masipa’s finding of culpable homicide replaced with a conviction of second degree murder – which would come with a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years as opposed to the five years Pistorius was jailed for.

At the time of judgment, legal experts’ opinion was that Judge Masipa’s verdict was an incorrect application of the law. Widespread criticism was expressed about her finding and her illogicality in the interpretation of criminal negligence and criminal intent in other cases in South African law on which she had relied.

In her judgement, Masipa said that a “reasonable” person with Pistorius’ disabilities would have foreseen that shooting into a door may kill the person inside. However, she said that South African legal precedents warned against automatically assuming that the perpetrator “should have” foreseen the consequences of his actions.

Masipa also found that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the former athletic icon had foreseen the fatal consequences of firing the shots into the toilet door.

The NPA said that Nel and Johnson were currently in the process of preparing the necessary papers in order to file for the leave to appeal within the next few days.

Neither Nel nor defense advocate Barry Roux SC could be reached for comment.

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