Prosecution asks for prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years for Pistorius
The prosecutor in the Oscar Pistorius sentencing argued that the court should not deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years in prison for murder.
Pistorius was being sentenced again after the Supreme Court of Appeal set aside his conviction for culpable homicide‚ for the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp‚ and replaced it with that of murder.
Pistorius’s advocate Barry Roux SC had earlier asked the high court in Pretoria to impose a sentence which incorporated community service because Pistorius‚ a double amputee‚ was vulnerable.
The minimum sentence that the judge should impose for murder is 15 years‚ unless the accused can show there were substantial and compelling reasons to deviate from the sentenced prescribed by legislation.
“Our courts have a duty to impose the minimum sentence‚” prosecutor Gerrie Nel told Judge Thokozile Masipa on Wednesday.
Nel said Pistorius had never offered an explanation of what caused him to shoot and kill Reeva‚ adding that Pistorius was a poor witness.
Nel said a finding of remorse and an absence of a credible explanation of what occurred was impossible.
“One really does not know what his explanation is for having fired shots. This excludes remorse.
“The only plausible explanation was that accused armed himself in order to shoot‚ and fired at the flesh of the defenceless Reeva Steenkamp‚” Nel said.