It is being reported on March 3, 2016 that the Constitutional Court in South Africa has rejected Oscar Pistorius’s appeal against his murder conviction. “”We can confirm that Oscar Pistorius’ leave to appeal has been denied,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku told Reuters.” The double-amputee Olympian now faces at least 15 years in jail — a new sentence will be handed down on April 18, 2016.
“The Supreme Court of Appeal upgraded the 29-year-old’s conviction to murder in December after the state prosecutors appealed the athlete’s prior conviction of culpable homicide in the Pretoria High Court.” Oscar Pistorius was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend Revva Steenkamp. The double amputee shot Steenkamp four times in his home on Valentine’s Day in 2013. Pistorius’s defense was that he thought she was an intruder when he fired his revolver into his bathroom.
Pistorius was originally found guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide or manslaughter and sentenced to five years back in October 2014. He spent twelve months in prison before being released into house arrest last October 2015. “The altered verdict was based on the legal concept of “dolis eventualis” which indicates that the intent to kill was clearly shown by the defendant’s actions. Pistorius’s claim that he thought it was an intruder did not justify his actions of shooting four times into a small bathroom cubicle.”
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