Oscar’s appeal hearing date set for November
PRETORIA: A date has been set for the hearing of the State’s appeal in the culpable homicide finding against Oscar Pistorius for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The hearing will take place on November 3 in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide, but the State is appealing this on points of law.
The court announced that five judges would preside over the appeal.
The proceedings are expected to be argued over at least two days, as Pistorius’s advocate, Barry Roux SC, indicated in his heads of argument filed in Bloemfontein that his argument will last about five hours.
The State is expected to also argue at length.
Roux indicated that he would attack the State’s attempt to secure a murder conviction on the basis that Judge Thokozile Masipa correctly interpreted both the facts of the case as well as the law pertaining to the facts.
According to Roux, prosecutor Gerrie Nel is attacking the trial court’s findings on the facts of the case and his case is not built on errors in law.
The State cannot in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act appeal against the facts of a case. It is only when it is of the opinion that the judge erred in law that the State can turn to the appeal court.
Roux is expected to argue that the appeal court may, if it agreed with the State that there were errors in law, refer the matter back for a retrial. He, however, said Pistorius is out of pocket and would not be able to afford another trial.
The parole review board is, meanwhile, expected to decide next month when Pistorius should be released from jail. He was sentenced to a five-year jail term, of which he had to serve 10 months before he is released on correctional supervision (house arrest).
The 10 months had already lapsed last month, but Justice Minister Michael Masutha, two days before Pistorius was due to be released, referred the matter back to the review board, as the decision to release him was taken before he had served his 10 months.
The review board convened last week in Durban, but as it had to review several cases, it could not get through its roll. It was agreed that the board would convene in two weeks’ time to consider Pistorius’s case.