S’African Court Convicts Player, Pistorius Over Murder Of Girl Friend

Oscar Pistorius

SOUTH African Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was on Wednesday sentenced to six years imprisonment for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

The world's most famous Paralympic athlete is due to be sentenced for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius had allegedly fired four bullets through his bathroom door, killing Steenkamp in February 2013.
However, the track star said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder and feared for his life when he shot through the door against the contention of the prosecution which insisted Pistorius had a violent streak, and that he murdered his lover after a late-night argument...

After a nearly 50-day trial stretched over seven months, Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide (much like manslaughter) in September 2014. Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled the sprinter had acted negligently when he shot Steenkamp, but that he didn't do it intentionally, and sentenced him to five years in prison.

But the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the verdict last December saying the accused should have known that firing his gun would have killed whoever was behind the door, regardless of who he thought it was – and found Pistorius guilty of murder.

The minimum prison sentence in South Africa for murder is 15 years, and the prosecution has called for no less. But the defense has tried to secure a shorter sentence for Pistorius by arguing that his disability and emotional state were mitigating factors.

In dramatic scenes during his sentencing hearing in June, Pistorius hobbled across the court without his prosthetic legs, weeping as defense attorney Barry Roux argued that the former Olympian and Paralympic gold medalist was a broken man who deserved leniency.

"He suffers from an anxiety disorder. We know that uncontested evidence that when he was on his stumps, his balance was seriously compromised, and without anything he won't be able to defend himself," Roux said.