Oscar Pistorius returns to court for murder sentencing

Sentencing proceedings for former paralympian and convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius are expected to start in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday.


Sentencing procedures have been set down for a week before Judge Thokozile Masipa, who originally sentenced Pistorius in October 2014.

The process would be similar to a trial, and the defence and State would be able to call witnesses to argue in aggravation and mitigation of sentencing, and could then cross-examine them, lawyer William Booth said.

In the early hours of February 14, 2013, Pistorius shot Steenkamp four times through the locked door of the toilet in his Silver Woods Country Estate home. He claimed he thought there was an intruder behind the door and that Reeva was still in bed.

In October 2014, Masipa sentenced him to five years behind bars after finding him guilty of culpable homicide.

The National Prosecuting Authority approached the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to argue that he should have been found guilty of murder.

Pistorius was released on October 19 last year, to serve out the rest of his sentence under correctional supervision at his uncle Arnold’s house. He had spent nearly a year in Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria.

On December 3 last year, the SCA overturned his culpable homicide conviction, and replaced it with the more serious one of murder. It sent the matter back to the high court to determine an appropriate sentence.

The SCA found Masipa committed an error in law by incorrectly applying the principles of dolus eventualis when she found him guilty of culpable homicide.