Oscar Pistorius seeks leave to appeal
The NPA has confirmed that Paralympian Oscar Pistorius has filed an application to have the Bloemfontein Supreme Court of Appeal’s decision to convict him of murder, overturned.
NPA spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku said the papers were filed with the Constitutional Court on Monday.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court is the highest court in the land, and is the last resort for the Paralympian to stay out of jail for the 2013 kiling of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius has been out on bail and living at his uncle’s Waterkloof, Pretoria mansion since late last year when the Bloemfontein Supreme Court of Appeal overturned his earlier conviction of culpable homicide.
The court found that the Pretoria High Court had not correctly applied the rule of dolus eventualis and convicted him instead of murder.
Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013 when he shot through a locked bathroom door, mistakenly believing she was an intruder.
In South Africa, the minimum sentence for murder carries a much heavier sentence than that of culpable homicide.
Pistorius served just one year of his five-year sentence for culpable homicide before he was released on correctional supervision in October last year.