NPA to ask for leave to appeal Oscar sentence
JUDGE Thokozile Masipa erroneously overemphasised murderer Oscar Pistorius’s disability when sentencing him to a “shockingly too lenient” six years imprisonment.
This is the National Prosecuting Authority’s overriding argument in papers filed yesterday at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
The NPA has applied for leave to appeal Masipa’s sentence.
Senior state prosecutor in the matter, Gerrie Nel, has personally signed the NPA’s application papers.
He argued Masipa’s sentencing gave the life of Pistorius’s girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, who he shot and killed through a bathroom door on Valentine’s Day three years ago, “too little or no weight”.
The NPA wants the court to accept that Pistorius’s disability was not a mitigating factor in the case.
“We respectfully submit that the court overemphasised the personal circumstances of the accused, particularly the disability of the accused and the fact that the accused was on his stumps when committing the murder and “felt vulnerable” at the time, treating such, with respect, erroneously as mitigating factors, when regard is had to all the circumstances of the case,” Nel said in the papers.
Announcing the decision to appeal, NPA spokeswoman Bulelwa Makeke said the sentence was “disproportionate to the crime of murder committed” and “shockingly too lenient”.
Criminal law expert Mannie Witz said he “definitely wasn’t surprised” by the NPA’s announcement that it would seek leave to appeal Masipa’s judgment.
Another lawyer, Ulrich Roux, said the NPA seems to believe aggravating factors should have outweighed mitigating factors in the case.
Masipa will hear the NPA’s application and rule whether or not to grant leave to appeal her sentence, Roux said.