{"id":5809,"date":"2016-03-03T18:37:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T18:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/03\/03\/south-african-court-denies-oscar-pistorius-bid-to-appeal-murder-conviction\/"},"modified":"2016-03-03T18:37:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T18:37:00","slug":"south-african-court-denies-oscar-pistorius-bid-to-appeal-murder-conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/south-african-court-denies-oscar-pistorius-bid-to-appeal-murder-conviction\/","title":{"rendered":"South African Court Denies Oscar Pistorius' Bid To Appeal Murder Conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Laura Wagner<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n
\n
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The ruling by South Africa’s Constitutional Court clears the way for a judge to sentence the double-amputee runner, pictured in 2014, for murder at a hearing set for April 18. Themba Hadebe\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Themba Hadebe\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Signaling a possible end to a years-long legal saga related to Oscar Pistorius’ killing of his girlfriend in 2013, South Africa’s highest court denied the Paralympic champion’s request to appeal his murder conviction.<\/p>\n

“We can confirm that Oscar Pistorius’ leave to appeal has been denied,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

The case will now proceed to sentencing, with a hearing scheduled for April 18.<\/p>\n

Pistorius shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, through a bathroom door on Valentine’s Day after they had argued. The double-amputee sprinter maintained that he thought he was shooting an intruder. A judge found him guilty of culpable homicide<\/a>, which is equivalent to manslaughter, and Pistorius served one year of a five-year sentence in prison before being released<\/a> to house arrest.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors appealed the culpable homicide conviction<\/a> in 2014. As The Two-Way reported:<\/p>\n

\n
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“While granting the appeal, Judge Thokozile Masipa dismissed prosecutors’ bid to appeal Pistorius’ five-year prison sentence. The prosecutor in the case had argued<\/a> that the sentence was ‘shockingly inappropriate.’ “<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Pistorius was found guilty of murder. His lawyers moved to appeal the conviction. The Guardian reports<\/a> they argued that the court “ignored his vulnerability as a person with a disability,” believing that it “wrongly rejected a lower court’s judgment that Pistorius acted out of fear when he opened fire at what he thought, by his account, was an intruder in his home.”<\/p>\n

Now that the country’s highest court has denied the right to appeal, the sentencing for his murder charge will take place.<\/p>\n

The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, though a judge can reduce that sentence for what the law describes as exceptional circumstances, The Associated Press reports.<\/p>\n

After winning multiple Paralympic medals, Pistorius became the first amputee athlete to run at the Olympics. He was called the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fiber running blades.<\/p>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source:: http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/03\/03\/469052585\/south-african-court-denies-oscar-pistorius-bid-to-appeal-murder-conviction?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

The ruling by South Africa’s Constitutional Court clears the way for a judge to sentence the double-amputee runner, pictured in 2014, for murder at a hearing set for April 18. Themba Hadebe\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Themba Hadebe\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Signaling a possible end to a years-long legal saga related to Oscar Pistorius’ killing of his girlfriend in 2013, South Africa’s highest court denied the Paralympic champion’s request to appeal his murder conviction.<\/p>\n

“We can confirm that Oscar Pistorius’ leave to appeal has been denied,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

The case will now proceed to sentencing, with a hearing scheduled for April 18.<\/p>\n

Pistorius shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, through a bathroom door on Valentine’s Day after they had argued. The double-amputee sprinter maintained that he thought he was shooting an intruder. A judge found him guilty of culpable homicide<\/a>, which is equivalent to manslaughter, and Pistorius served one year of a five-year sentence in prison before being released<\/a> to house arrest.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors appealed the culpable homicide conviction<\/a> in 2014. As The Two-Way reported:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

“While granting the appeal, Judge Thokozile Masipa dismissed prosecutors’ bid to appeal Pistorius’ five-year prison sentence. The prosecutor in the case had argued<\/a> that the sentence was ‘shockingly inappropriate.’ “<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Pistorius was found guilty of murder. His lawyers moved to appeal the conviction. The Guardian reports<\/a> they argued that the court “ignored his vulnerability as a person with a disability,” believing that it “wrongly rejected a lower court’s judgment that Pistorius acted out of fear when he opened fire at what he thought, by his account, was an intruder in his home.”<\/p>\n

Now that the country’s highest court has denied the right to appeal, the sentencing for his murder charge will take place.<\/p>\n

The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, though a judge can reduce that sentence for what the law describes as exceptional circumstances, The Associated Press reports.<\/p>\n

After winning multiple Paralympic medals, Pistorius became the first amputee athlete to run at the Olympics. He was called the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fiber running blades.<\/p>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}