Sobbing Pistorius pleads for leniency
Print Edition
A sobbing Oscar Pistorius yesterday hobbled on his stumps across a courtroom to demonstrate his physical vulnerability to a judge who will decide next month how long he goes to prison for murder.
The double-amputee removed his prosthetic limbs at the request of his lawyer Barry Roux, who is pleading for leniency, but state prosecutors sought a minimum 15-year jail term for the killing of Reeva Steenkamp.
Wearing shorts, the Paralympic athlete held onto wooden benches for support as he walked unsteadily through the courtroom. He appeared in distress as a cushion was provided for him to rest on.
Pistorius, 29, shot his girlfriend in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, claiming he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.
He was convicted of culpable homicide in 2014 — the equivalent of manslaughter — before the appeal court upgraded his crime to murder earlier this year. His murder sentence will be handed down on July 6, judge Thokozile Masipa told the High Court in Pretoria.
In March, the Supreme Court of Appeal said Pistorius was guilty of murder, irrespective of whoever was behind the door when he opened fire with a pistol he kept under his bed.
The minimum jail term for murder in South Africa is 15 years, but Pistorius’s sentence may be reduced due to the year he has already spent in prison and mitigating factors.
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