Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Pistorius moves to appeal murder conviction in S. Africa's top court

                   

 Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius on Monday made a last-ditch attempt with South Africa's top court
to overturn his murder conviction for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
He has been on bail awaiting a new sentence since December, when judges found him guilty of murder, overturning his earlier conviction on the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
The double-amputee killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine's Day, saying he mistook her for an intruder when he shot four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.
Under the new conviction for murder, Pistorius, 29, faces a minimum 15-year jail term that may be reduced due to time already spent in jail and the fact that he is a first-time offender.
"We have lodged an application for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court," Andrew Fawcett, a lawyer on Pistorius's legal team, told AFP.
Pistorius was released from jail in October to live under house arrest at his uncle's property in Pretoria after serving one year of his five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide -- the equivalent of manslaughter.

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