Oscar Pistorius to be sentenced for murder in June, faces minimum of 15 years

Friday, April 1, 2016

Former Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius will face sentencing for murder of former girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in June, 2016. The 29-year-old athlete was denied the right to appeal against his murder conviction for the killing of Reeva Steenkamp by South Africa's highest court.

He faces a minimum of 15 years in jail and is on bail until his sentencing, due to take place between 13 - 17 June.

He was released in October 2015 after serving less than a year of his original five-year sentence. Pistorius' manslaughter conviction for shooting dead Ms Steenkamp was upgraded to murder by an appeals court in December, 2015.

The judges said he should have known that death was inevitable after he fired four times into the toilet, leaving Ms Steenkamp with "nowhere to hide".

It ruled that the original trial judge had made a "fundamentally flawed" judgement. They also accused the appeals court of "making errors of law" and incorrectly applying the legal concept of 'dolus eventualis' - awareness of the likely outcome of one's actions.