The five years imposed on #OscarPistorius was significant, because a longer sentence would not have given him a chance of house arrest, says a law expert. “The number ‘five years’ was not an ordinary number, it was carefully selected,” said Wits School of Law Professor Stephen Tuson today. According to Section 276 of the Criminal Procedure Act, if the sentence is not more than five years, the offender could only serve one-sixth of the jail sentence. The remainder of the time could be converted to house arrest. This meant Pistorius could spend only 10 months in prison. “That is why it was carefully chosen,” said Tuson. Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of culpable homicide. For discharging a firearm at Tasha’s restaurant in January 2013, he was sentenced to three years in jail, suspended for five years. The sentences would run concurrently, Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled. Tuson said both the State and the defence would now have 14 days to apply for leave to appeal. The State could only appeal if there was a question of law or the sentence, while the defence could appeal the conviction and the sentence. However, he said this would not be advisable for the defence because Pistorius’s sentence could be made heavier than the present one. “It is inadvisable [for the defence] to appeal the conviction because they got off lightly with culpable homicide,” said Tuson.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 04:15:01 +0000
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