South African court turns down plea that argued Oscar Pistorius' six-year sentence was too lenient
The judge who rejected the application was the same one who had initially found the athlete guilty of a lesser charge. His verdict was later overturned.
A South African court has turned down an application to move the country's Supreme Court seeking a review of athlete Oscar Pistorius’ six-year murder sentence for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, reported AFP. The petitioner had argued that the punishment for the crime was "shockingly lenient and disturbingly inappropriate".
Rejecting the application, Judge Thokozile Masipa said, "I’m of the view that a long term of imprisonment will not serve justice." Masipa had found Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide the equivalent of manslaughter, a lesser charge, in 2014, and had given him a five-year prison sentence. However, an appeals court later overturned the verdict in December 2015, and found the athlete guilty of murder.
In 2013, Pistorius shot the model and law graduate that led to her death on Valentine's Day. He fired four shots through the door of his bedroom toilet. He pleaded not guilty during his trial in 2014, and said he thought she was an intruder or a burglar.
