Johannesburg - Is this the end of the road for Oscar Pistorius' bid to dodge a murder conviction? It may be so, after Pistorius was informed on Thursday afternoon he had been denied his Constitutional Court application to overturn the Supreme Court's decision to charge him with murder.
In early December last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein overturned Pistorius's culpable homicide conviction and found him guilty of murder for killing his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
In a fairly brief judgment by Judge Eric Leach, Pistorius was found to have been indirectly murderous in his actions by firing four shots into a closed bathroom door when not knowing who or if anyone was behind it.
Pistorius' legal team vowed to take the Supreme Court's decision to the Constitutional Court to overturn it. However, on Thursday, the Constitutional Court registrar revealed the court had chosen not to hear the matter, denying him leave to appeal. In a statement from the Office of the Chief Justice, the reason given for dismissing the appeal proceedings was “for lack of prospects of success”.
Pistorius was convicted by Judge Thokozile Masipa at the Pretoria High Court at the end of 2014 for the culpable homicide of Steenkamp, whom he allegedly mistook for an intruder at his Pretoria East home on Valentine's Day 2013. However, since the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the culpable homicide conviction, and the Constitutional Court appeal rejection, the case will now return to the Pretoria High Court, and Judge Thokozile Masipa, in April. Judge Masipa will hear both the state and Pistorius' defence argue in aggravation and mitigation of sentence respectively, before she will be expected to sentence the athlete for murder, dolus eventualis.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesman, Advocate Luvuyo Mfaku, said it was now up to Judge Masipa to finish what she started. He told The Star that if Pistorius is sentenced, and wishes to appeal Judge Masipa's decision on the sentence at the Supreme Court, he and his legal team will have to find new legal facts to do so.
“One can not appeal based on all of the same facts,” he said.
Mfaku said the NPA welcomed the decision by the Constitutional Court, saying Pistorius' appeal bid would have had no chance of succeeding if it had been heard. He added that should Pistorius attempt to have Judge Masipa recuse herself from the case, it did not matter, and that the Authority was comfortable with any judge overseeing the proceedings.
It was also revealed the state will argue for the maximum penalty for Pistorius' crime, meaning a possible lengthy prison sentence for the athlete.
In the Supreme Court's ruling in December, Judge Leach said that the international spotlight on Pistorius' case could have affected Judge Masipa's decision to convict him of culpable homicide, though he insisted this was not an indictment on her abilities. He said the sentencing would have to be argued once again at the High Court.
Pistorius' family spokewoman, Anneliese Burgess, said the Pistorius family would not be commenting at this time.
Meanwhile, Reeva Steenkamp's parents, Barry and June, told ENCA that “the law must take its course”.
IOL