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As it happened: State's Pistorius appeal dismissed with costs

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Oscar Pistorius is escorted by police officers as he leaves the High Court in Pretoria. (Themba Hadebe, AP)
Oscar Pistorius is escorted by police officers as he leaves the High Court in Pretoria. (Themba Hadebe, AP)

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For more news on the Oscar Pistorius trial, click here.

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26 Aug 2016

Bid to appeal Oscar Pistorius's 6-year sentence rejected

Judge Thokozile Masipa on Friday rejected the State's bid for leave to appeal the six-year jail sentence for murder she imposed on Oscar Pistorius.

"I am not persuaded that there are reasonable prospects of success for an appeal. The application for leave to appeal against the sentence is dismissed with costs," she said in the High Court in Johannesburg.

Barry Roux, for Pistorius, had earlier argued that the State was merely dragging out legal processes and subjecting the former Paralympian to continued uncertainty. "What does the State want? 10 years? What is the practical effect of that?"

Read the full story

26 Aug 2016

Judge Masipa grants the following order: application dismissed with costs.

26 Aug 2016

Court has resumed.

26 Aug 2016

Gerrie Nel leaves court (Wim Pretorius, News24)
Gerrie Nel leaves court (Wim Pretorius, News24)

26 Aug 2016

Nel wants fresh sentencing, says it was shockingly inappropriate, court should have started at 15 year minimum sentence.

Judge Masipa adjourns court until 11:45.

26 Aug 2016

Roux: Eight years is not shockingly inappropriate or lenient. Judge should dismiss the application and this should be the end of the judicial process.

"It has been exhausting beyond the point of exhaustion".

26 Aug 2016

The State is unnecessarily prolonging the legal process and subjecting Pistorius to continued uncertainty, says Roux.

Earlier, he tells Judge Masipa that the sentencing judgment "made me proud of the judiciary".

26 Aug 2016

Watch the proceedings live

26 Aug 2016

Effective sentence of 8 years is not lenient - Roux.

26 Aug 2016

Nel: Pistorius never offered an acceptable explanation for having fired 4 shots through the toilet door. He knew that was a finding of this court, but he elected not to address this.

26 Aug 2016

Nel: Fact that black talon ammunition used should be an aggravating factor, the fact that he fired 4 shots means the possibility of death was more likely.

26 Aug 2016

Nel has brought up those now well-known terms dolus eventualis and dolus directus.

26 Aug 2016

Nel: Sentence should have been assessed within the benchmark of 15 years.

26 Aug 2016

Nel: Pistorius showed "some regret" for his "mistake". This is not the same as genuine remorse.

26 Aug 2016

Nel: There's a chasm between regret and remorse.

26 Aug 2016

Nel: Court misdirected itself in finding that respondent is genuinely remorseful.

26 Aug 2016

Nel: Court failed to take findings and inferences made by SCA.

26 Aug 2016

Nel: SCA rejected defence that OP acted in self defence - there existed no justification for respondent's actions.

Respondent fired 4 shots through the door, never offered an acceptable explanation for having done so.

26 Aug 2016

Nel says court misdirected itself in three major factors - Pistorius formed intention to shoot in the bedroom, not the bathroom where he fired four shots, this is a material aggravating factor.

26 Aug 2016

Gerrie Nel is stating the State's case in court, repeats that the sentence was shockingly inappropriate. There were 6 misdirections from the court.

26 Aug 2016

Gerrie Nel has arrived in court (Thomas Hartleb, News24)
Gerrie Nel has arrived in court (Thomas Hartleb, News24)<br />

26 Aug 2016

Appeal against Oscar's 'lenient' sentence without merit - defence

Oscar Pistorius’ defence team says that the State’s decision to appeal his murder sentence is without merit.

According to the defence, the State’s application is not only without merit, but is "also exposed to be inappropriate".

He was initially convicted of culpable homicide and received a five-year sentence, but the Supreme Court of Appeal last year ruled that the conviction should be murder and that he should be re-sentenced.

Judge Thokozila Masipa then sentenced him to six years in jail. The defence said the State’s appeal was an insult to Masipa’s judgment and that it had ignored all the circumstances considered during Pistorius’s trial.

Read more here

26 Aug 2016

State to challenge Pistorius's 6-year jail term

The State will on Friday again challenge a ruling by Judge Thokozile Masipa against convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius.

It would ask for leave to appeal against the six-year jail term she sentenced him to on July 6.

The hearing would take place in the High Court in Johannesburg, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku said.

“We respectfully submit that our courts are enjoined to severely punish accused persons who shoot and kill without reason,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel said in his application for leave to appeal.

While the former paralympic athlete had expressed “some regret”, he had still not offered a credible explanation for firing the four shots that killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

This would be the State’s second challenge of a ruling by Masipa. It first challenged her finding that Pistorius was guilty of culpable homicide.

In October 2014, Masipa sentenced Pistorius to five years behind bars for culpable homicide.

On December 3 last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that it agreed with the State. It overturned Masipa’s verdict, replaced it with one of murder, and instructed Masipa to sentence Pistorius afresh.

Nel said Masipa should have taken as her starting point the prescribed minimum sentences when deciding on a jail term for Pistorius. The minimum sentence for murder is 15 years.

The defence said the State’s appeal was an insult to Masipa’s judgment and it ignored the circumstances considered during Pistorius’s trial.

In the early hours of February 14, 2013, Pistorius shot Steenkamp four times through the locked door of the toilet in his Silver Woods Country Estate home. He claimed he thought there was an intruder behind the door about to emerge and harm him, and that Reeva was still in bed.

Read the story here
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