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The star athlete was sentenced in October 2014 to five years in prison for culpable homicide - a charge equivalent to manslaughter - and is now eligible for release into house arrest after serving more than a sixth of his sentence. Pistorius was initially due to be freed in August. But intervention by the minister of justice led to a series of delays before the parole board announced Thursday that he would be released on October 20. Prosecutors have filed an appeal against the culpable homicide verdict, arguing that he should have been convicted of murder over the killing of Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013. If they win their case, which is due to be begin in the Supreme Court on November 3, the 28-year-old could face at least 15 years in jail.
The athlete - known as "Blade Runner" for the prosthetic legs he wears on the track - won international fame after racing against able-bodied competitors in the 2012 London Olympics. His trial was broadcast live around the world. "I think the chances are pretty good that the appeals court will rule in favour of the state and overturn the verdict," said Ulrich Roux, a criminal lawyer in Johannesburg. "He is faced with the unusual circumstance that he's released on house arrest and then the court could find him guilty of murder and he'll have to return to prison." Pistorius does not dispute that he shot his model and law graduate girlfriend four times through a locked toilet door in his Pretoria home in the early hours of February 14, 2013. But he said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder. Prosecutors insist that he deliberately killed her after an argument.
South African correctional services officials have indicated that Pistorius has been a good inmate and qualifies for house arrest - a routine procedure in South Africa. "He's not 'out' on parole... he's having his sentence converted to a house arrest sentence," said criminal lawyer David Dadic. "He's now confined to a house for a period," said Dadic. "They'll confine him essentially to what he would be doing in prison but in the confines of his own house." Steenkamp's parents June and Barry are outraged by Pistorius's imminent release. "For our beautiful daughter - for anyone's life - it's definitely not long enough," Steenkamp's mother told You Magazine, a South African tabloid. "She was robbed of her future, her career, her chance to get married and have a baby." Steenkamp would have turned 32 in August this year.
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MURDER VERSUS MANSLAUGHTER
It was never disputed that Pistorius killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013. What was uncertain, however, was whether he meant to do it. Under South African law, a murder conviction hinges on the offender's intention to kill, according to South African criminal law expert Mannie Witz. Without intention, the killing is ruled as manslaughter, or culpable homicide as it is known in South Africa. Pistorius' lawyers argued that he shot in self-defense, painting the picture of a scared amputee negligently firing at an unidentified intruder. The prosecution tried to depict Pistorius as an angry boyfriend who intentionally shot his model-girlfriend as she cowered behind a toilet door. Judge Thokozile Masipa convicted him of culpable homicide, or negligent killing, but acquitted him of murder. In acquitting Pistorius of murder, Masipa ruled that Pistorius could not have anticipated that someone might die before he shot four times through a door into a toilet cubicle, killing Steenkamp.
THE LATIN TERMS BEHIND THE LAW
In overturning the trial ruling, Supreme Court of Appeal Justice Lorimer Eric Leach unpacked exactly how the court interprets dolus eventualis. To prove dolus, the state had to prove that the perpetrator committed the act that led to the victim's death with the intention to kill. Under South African law, there are two forms of dolus - directus and eventualis. Simpler to understand, directus describes the direct intention to kill. The principle of eventualis rests on the idea that the perpetrator may have foreseen that someone would be killed by their actions, and went ahead. That's the chance Pistorius took when he fired hollow bullets - designed to fragment on impact - from a 9mm pistol through the door of a "very small" toilet cubicle, Leach said. Under this principle, the identity of the victim should not matter, the judge said. "I have no doubt that in firing the fatal shots the accused must have foreseen and therefore did foresee that whoever was behind the toilet door might die, but reconciled himself to that event occurring and gambled with the person's life," said Leach.
BACK TO PRISON?
Now found guilty of murder, Pistorius faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years as a first time offender, said Witz. Under exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the judge, possibly including his time served and his disability, Pistorius could receive a lesser sentence than the minimum. For now, as he awaits a harsher sentence in line with his new conviction, Pistorius will remain under house arrest. Under the manslaughter conviction, Pistorius was sentenced to five years in jail. According to South African law, an offender sentenced to five years or less may be released to correctional supervision after serving one-sixth of the term in prison. After less than a year, under cover of darkness and without public notice, Pistorius was transferred from his prison cell in the medical ward of a Pretoria prison to his uncle's lavish home - a red-bricked house with landscaped lawns in an affluent suburb.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Ruling that a retrial is unnecessary, the Supreme Court of Appeal sent the case back to the trial court in South Africa's capital Pretoria for sentencing. No date has been given for this new sentencing ruling. Masipa, who presided over the trial, must now study the Supreme Court's ruling and hand down a new sentence, Witz said. Pistorius can appeal to South Africa's highest court, the Constitutional Court, but only if he is able to prove that his constitutional right to a fair trial was infringed during the highly publicized hearing, said Witz. "I think it really comes to an end now," said Witz. The Pistorius family released a statement saying their lawyers would study the judgment.
News from The Associated Press
Pistorius, who is awaiting sentencing for killing Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013 in South Africa, was found guilty of murder in March. He had spent a year in jail on the conviction of the lesser crime of culpable homicide (manslaughter), but last December prosecutors successfully had that verdict overturned in favor of the more serious crime when an appeals court ruled the judge in the original trial had misapplied South African law. The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years. “I don’t want to go back to jail. I don’t want to have to waste my life sitting there,” Pistorius said in an interview with Britain’s ITV that will air Friday. “If I was afforded the opportunity of redemption, I would like to help the less fortunate, like I had in my past. I would like to believe that if Reeva could look down upon me that she would want me to live that life.”
Pistorius, who is currently free on bail, does not dispute that he shot Steenkamp but claims that he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four bullets through the door of the toilet in his bedroom. The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that he was guilty of murder no matter who was behind the door when he fired the gun he kept under his bed. Pistorius claimed that he kept the weapon because he feared crime while sleeping with his leg prostheses off. “Reeva was a fantastic person, but if [people believe] that I took her life intentionally, which has not been found, then it’s a very sad thing,” Pistorius said.
During the interview, Pistorius weeps as he describes the night of the shooting. He describes firing the gun through the closed door, opening it to find Steenkamp and not an intruder slumped on the toilet and attempting to revive her. He has wondered, he said, “a million times” how the shooting could have been averted if Steenkamp had told him she was going to the toilet or had called out to him from the cubicle. “It’s difficult to know if one of those small things didn’t happen that the situation would be different. And I would still have her here with me,” he said. “I understand the pain people feel, that loved her and miss her. I feel that same pain. “And I look back and I think, I always think – how did this possibly happen? I think, how could this have happened? How could this have happened?”
Oscar Pistorius says the girlfriend he killed would want him to be free
Prosecutors sought the maximum, 15-year sentence for Pistorius, 29, the double-amputee track star convicted in the 2013 shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Judge Thokozile Masipa handed down the six-year sentence last month, citing mitigating factors including Pistorius' remorse, his disability and his status as a first-time offender, and Friday dismissed the prosecutors' appeal. "I'm not persuaded that there are reasonable prospects of success on appeal or that another court may find differently," she said in her ruling.
Pistorius was originally convicted of manslaughter, and served one year of his five-year prison term before he was moved to house arrest. In 2015, South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal, citing errors of law in the verdict, increased the charge to murder. Despite the rejection of the appeal Friday, prosecutors can still petition the Supreme Court of Appeal, and if necessary, the country's Constitutional Court.
Prosecutors' bid for longer jail term for Pistorius rejected
The disgraced Paralympian was allegedly involved in a fight over the use of a public phone, a prison department spokesman told the BBC. Pistorius, jailed for 13 years and five months, sustained a bruise, he added. No other serious injuries were reported, the spokesman said. "It is alleged that he was involved in an altercation with another inmate over the use of a public phone in the special care unit where both offenders are detained at Attridgeville Correctional Centre," the spokesman, Singabakho Nxumalo, added.
Oscar Pistorius (left in 2016) was found guilty of his girlfriend's murder in 2015
The department has launched an investigation, in terms of standard procedure, to "establish the facts and to ensure that appropriate action is taken as incidents of assaults are not allowed", he said. The brawl took place on 6 December, 10 days after South African prosecutors successfully argued Pistorius' "shockingly light" six-year sentence should be increased. n November, the Supreme Court of Appeal gave Pistorius the minimum 15 years prescribed for murder in South Africa, less time already served.
Pistorius shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013
Pistorius was initially found guilty of manslaughter after he claimed he shot Ms Steenkamp dead through a locked bathroom door having mistaken her for a burglar in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013. But the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the ruling in 2015, and found him guilty of murder. The six-time Paralympic gold medallist had made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in 2012 in London, running on prosthetic "blades". He had his legs amputated below the knee as a baby.
Oscar Pistorius hurt in prison fight
