PRETORIA: The history of the Oscar Pistorius case makes it clear the interests of justice demand finality in the matter.
And as the State wants to appeal his latest sentence, the parents of Reeva Steenkamp made it clear they did not ask for this legal step.
This is according to advocate Barry Roux, who is opposing the State’s application for leave to appeal against Pistorius’s six-year-jail sentence.
According to Roux, the State’s application for leave to appeal is doomed to fail.
Roux yesterday filed papers in which he said if one took everything into account, Pistorius’s sentence is an effective eight-ear jail term.
Judge Thokozile Masipa is due to hear the State’s application for leave to appeal against her sentence next Friday.
The State intends to head to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein, which it wants to directly impose a harsher sentence.
According to prosecutor Gerrie Nel, Judge Masipa’s sentence of six years on a charge of murder is shockingly lenient.
Pistorius's legal team said there is no prospect of another court upping the sentence.
It said the State had no regard for the fact that Oscar had already spent 12 months in jail when he was previously convicted of culpable homicide.
It was also said that he was, following his release, under correctional supervision for seven months.
Pending his resentencing, he was placed under even stricter bail conditions, which included house arrest.
The defence said although the judge took this into account, it appears the State has “conveniently” omitted to consider these facts.
“It must be borne in mind that correctional supervision is a form of detention," Roux said.
Pistorius's defence further stated that “if regard is had to the fact that – subject to good behaviour – an accused would usually be released on parole after serving about 60% of his sentence, the previous sentence period served, as well as the correctional supervision, constitute about a two-year effective imprisonment sentence already served by the accused”.
The defence is of the opinion that this makes the present sentence an effective eight-year sentence, which it said is anything but lenient.
Roux also questioned why the State wanted the matter to serve before the SCA and said that if leave to appeal was granted, it should serve before a full Bench (three judges) of this court.
Pistorius is at present serving his six-year jail term at the Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in Pretoria.
If next Friday's bid fails, the State can directly petition the SCA for leave to appeal.