Judge Dismisses Prosecutors’ Appeal against Oscar Pistorius’ 6-year ‘Lenient’ Sentence

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA – JUNE 15 : Oscar Pistorius leaves the North Gauteng High Court at the end of the day on June 15, 2016 and will return on July 6th for the final sentencing of his murder trial in Pretoria, South Africa. Having had his conviction upgraded to murder in December 2015, Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius is attending his sentencing hearing and will be returned to jail for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on February 14th 2013. The hearing is expected to last five days.

South African state prosecutors have failed in their appeal to challenge the 6-year murder sentence imposed on Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius, 29, BBC reports.

Pistorius killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp after shooting her four times through a locked bathroom door in his home on Valentine’s Day in 2013.

He received the 6-year sentence in July after a successful appeal by state prosecutors to upgrade his original conviction from culpable homicide to murder.

Prosecutors had argued that the sentence was “too lenient” for the crime he committed.

The prosecutors now have until 21 days to petition to the Supreme Court of Appeal in South Africa.

Judge Thokozile Masipa, who initially handed Pistorius the 6-year sentence said the state’s appeal to extend the six-year sentence against the 29-year-old double amputee Olympic sprinter had a limited prospect of success.

“I am not persuaded that there are reasonable prospects of success for an appeal,” she said in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.

The final decision to take the case to the Supreme Court will be decided by South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

Masipa’s ruling, just like the previous one, has been kicked against by many South Africans.

Oscar Pistorius. Proving that if you absolutely MUST cold heartedly murder someone, then South Africa is the place to do it.

— Mike Spudgun (@spudgun01) August 26, 2016

Oscar Pistorius case confirms what u have written, at present in SA you will get more for theft than murder https://t.co/EtD4CwQ6Be

— Mike Jakeman (@mikejakeman2) August 26, 2016

Prosecutors have Lost appeal against Oscar Pistorius Meagre 6 year Sentence for Shooting Dead Reeva Steenkamp! A Disgracefully Low Sentence!

— Norman Brennan (@NormanBrennan) August 26, 2016

Why does Judge Masipa continue to preside over the #OscarPistorius case after her judgement was overturned? pic.twitter.com/BGWu3eiCU5

— SAcrimefighters (@SAcrimefighters) August 26, 2016

Photo Credit: Charlie Shoemaker/Getty Images