SCA to deliver judgment on appeal against Oscar's sentence

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) is expected to deliver judgment on Friday in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)’s application for appeal against Oscar Pistorius 's sentence.

In July last year the Pretoria High Court sentenced the former paralympic athlete to six years’ imprisonment for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius shot his girlfriend dead in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013‚ when he fired four times through the door of his toilet - an act‚ he says‚ that came from mistaking her for a burglar.

Pistorius was originally convicted of culpable homicide in 2014‚ but the SCA upgraded his conviction to murder in 2015.

The appeal court said his testimony was “vacillating and untruthful”. The NPA argued at the SCA that the sentence Pistorius was given is “shockingly low”.

Prosecutor Andrea Johnston argued that Pistorius did not show remorse and had not told the Pretoria High Court why he had shot Steenkamp. “He should have taken the court into his confidence and said‚ ‘This is why I did it.’ With nothing more‚ there is no gut-wrenching remorse.”

Johnston told the court that trial judge Thokozile Masipa elevated Pistorius’s regret and that his regret does not absolve him from the crime he committed.

Advocate Barry Roux‚ counsel for Pistorius‚ argued that his client had showed more than remorse and that when he realised he had shot his girlfriend‚ he was beside himself. “His actions were directed against the intruder. When he realised he had shot Reeva‚ he was beside himself.”

“His whole concern was about the deceased and her family. He tried to make contact before and during the trial. After the trial‚ he tried to make contact‚” Roux argued.

On Wednesday‚ Pistorius spent his second birthday behind bars. He celebrated his 31st birthday while serving his sentence the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre in Pretoria.