Oscar Pistorius appeal against ‘shockingly lenient’ sentence is rejected
SOUTH-AFRICA - A legal challenge to Oscar Pistorius’s ‘shockingly too lenient’ sixyear jail term for murdering Reeva Steenkamp was today rejected for having ‘no reasonable prospects of success’. A Pistorius family source greeted the news ‘with great relief’ and welcomed the judge’s ‘humanity’ after accusing prosecutors of having ‘a personal vendetta’ against the shamed athlete. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel spent almost an hour arguing against ‘the injustice’ of Pistorius’ prison sentence in the latest round of legal wrangling in pursuit of the runner, which was described as ‘ego driven and unprofessional’ by one of the Blade Runner’s relatives. Mr Nel told Judge Thokozile Masipa that she had misdirected herself in law by handing down a punishment that was less than half of South Africa’s prescribed minimum 15-year sentence for murder. The 29 year-old track star, who was treated for injuries to his wrists two weeks ago in what prison sources claimed was a self-harming incident in his cell, was not in court for the 80 minute hearing. Judge Masipa, who presided over the paralympian’s trial, took a little over an hour to decide that the state’s case was not worthy of referring to her superiors in South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal as there would be ‘little chance’ of senior judges arriving at a different punishment for Pistorius.
A relative of the runner’s told MailOnline, ‘Judge Masipa is not a sissy, thank god. She can stand up to Nel. She knows the case, she knows the law. She is a serious legal mind and won’t be bullied into changing it.’ Although today’s result will bring some relief to Pistorius and his family, the state may still petition a higher court over the matter. Mr Nel, known as the ‘pitbull’ for his confrontational style of questioning witnesses, told the judge that he had found six ‘misdirections’ in her sentencing of Pistorius for the 2013 murder of Reeva, which resulted in a punishment that ‘induces a sense of shock.’
(www.dailymail.com)