Oscar judgment due tomorrow
THE nail biting wait over whether he will receive a harsher sentence will soon be over for Oscar Pistorius.
The Supreme Court of Appeal is expected to deliver its judgment on the issue tomorrow.
This is exactly three weeks after the prosecution argued its case before the SCA, calling for a sentence harsher than the six-year jail term he is currently serving.
The five-judge team will first have to rule on whether it will grant the State leave to appeal against what the prosecution deemed “a shockingly lenient sentence”.
Trial Judge Thokozile Masipa earlier refused the State’s application for leave to appeal, but the team directly applied for this earlier this month, together with its application to appeal against the sentence.
If the SCA refuses leave to appeal, it would be the end of the matter. If it does give the State the green light, it will pronounce on whether the appeal succeeded or not.
In the case of the judges ruling in favour of the State, it has the discretion to either refer the matter back to Judge Thokozile Masipa to sentence Oscar afresh, or it can use its discretion and order a sentence the SCA deems fit.
The justices posed many questions after the head of the prosecution team, Andrea Johnson, opened her arguments by saying Masipa erred in sentencing Oscar to a six-yearjail sentence for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013.
Justice Ronnie Bosielo, who led the team, repeatedly questioned “Where did she err?”
Judgment was reserved for after the November 3 argument, as Judge Bosielo commented there were complex issues on which they had to deliberate.