South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority has said it will appeal against the conviction and sentence given to Oscar Pistorius. Prosecutors were not happy with the culpable homicide conviction and five-year prison sentence given by Judge Thokozile Masipa.
Pistorius who began his prison term on 21 October is currently eligible for release after ten months to complete his sentence under house arrest. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel had argued that only ten years' imprisonment would satisfy the public. Some legal experts believe Judge Masipa erred in her interpretation of "murder dolus eventualis", a legal term for when the perpetrator foresees the possibility of his action causing death and persists regardless. Masipa accepted that a "reasonable" person would have foreseen that shooting into the door of a small toilet cubicle may have killed the person inside.
However, she said South African law warns against automatically assuming that because a perpetrator "should have" foreseen the consequences of his actions that he actually did. The onus was on the state to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Pistorius foresaw the fatal consequences of his actions when he shot at the door, but the judge said the prosecution failed to do so.
In a statement released the NPA said that the appeal on conviction is based on the question of law. "The merits, demerits of the NPA's argument in this regard will become evident when we file papers for leave to appeal," it said. "The prosecutors are now preparing the necessary papers in order to be able to file within the next few days." June Steenkamp, Reeva's mother, said the family had been "devastated" when Masipa ruled out murder and pre-meditated murder, but said that after sentencing they felt that justice had been done. "We were happy with the sentence – five years is sufficient," she said.
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