Convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius’s defence team has hit back at the State’s application to appeal his sentence, arguing that it’s inappropriate and an insult to the judgment.
Prosecutors announced last month that they intended to appeal the six-year prison term, saying it was shockingly inappropriate for the crime of murder.
Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day three years ago.
The matter is scheduled to be heard next Friday.
The defence team says in its court papers that Judge Thokozile Masipa’s judgment on sentence is comprehensive, principled and balanced.
It says the State ignores the accepted fact that a trial court has the requisite judicial discretion to impose sentence and that the appeal court won’t interfere with that discretion, unless the trial court misdirected itself.
The defence refers to case law where the appeal court ruled that it would only interfere in a sentence if there was a striking, startling or disturbing disparity between the sentence imposed and the one the higher court would impose.
Pistorius’s legal team argues that the continuation of this matter is contrary to the interests of justice and is patently unfair, saying enough is enough.
