A move to appeal what’s been described as the “shockingly lenient” six-year prison sentence handed to Oscar Pistorius over the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp has officially been dismissed.
Judge Thokozile Masipa rejected the move to appeal in the High Court today, saying there was little evidence to suggest the state prosecutor would succeed in appealing the prison term.
It was also Judge Masipa who oversaw the initial case and handed down the initial sentence, saying at the time that “public opinion may be loud and persistent but it can play no role in the decision of this court.”
Earlier, the National Prosecuting Authority had argued the original sentence would bring the justice system into “disrepute”, and was “disproportionate to the crime”.
They had originally sought to enforce a fifteen-year term for the former Olympian and Paralympian.
Pistorius admits to killing Steenkamp, but maintains he was shooting through his bathroom door at someone he believed to be a home intruder.
Photo: Charlie Shoemaker / Getty.
