JOHANNESBURG – The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has filed papers in the High Court in Pretoria to appeal Oscar Pistorius’s culpable homicide conviction.
Saturday will mark exactly two years since the Olympian and Paralympian shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day.
Pistorius claimed he thought Steenkamp was an intruder when he fired four shots through a locked toilet door.
He was sentenced to five years behind bars for culpable homicide.
Last year Judge Thokozile Masipa acquitted Pistorius on a murder charge which the state now intends to challenge in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel had argued that the sentence was “shockingly inappropriate”, while defence lawyer Barry Roux said the law was correctly applied.
NPA spokesperson Velekhaya Mgobhozi says, “The NPA confirms that on 6 February 2015 it has filed a notice on the defence and then again on 9 February 2015, we filed a notice at the High Court of Pretoria and the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.”
JUDGES TO DECIDE ON CONVICTION
As many as five judges will decide on Pistorius's conviction in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
Masipa’s decision again places the double amputee in jeopardy of a murder conviction and a possible 15-year jail sentence.
These judges are well prepared and require counsel to only present argument.
