State denied leave to appeal ‘shockingly lenient’ Oscar Pistorius sentence
THE High Court in Johannesburg has dismissed with costs the application by the state to appeal against the six-year jail term imposed on murderer Oscar Pistorius in July.Judge Thokozile Masipa said‚ after hearing submissions from the state and Pistorius’ lawyers‚ that she was not persuaded there were reasonable prospects of success on appeal.Masipa had in 2014 sentenced Pistorius‚ on a culpable homicide conviction‚ to a five-year prison term for the killing of his girlfriend‚ Reeva Steenkamp‚ on February 14 2013.ALSO READ: Oscar Pistorius’s murder sentence is shockingly lenient, Gerrie Nel saysHowever‚ the conviction of culpable homicide was set aside by the Supreme Court of Appeal in December last year and replaced with the murder conviction.The Supreme Court of Appeal sent the matter back to the High Court for sentencing on the new conviction for murder.The state wanted to appeal that sentence as it felt it was "shockingly inappropriate".TMG Digital
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