Avatar photo

By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


Sentencing about balance – Judge Masipa

Sentencing is about striking a balance between various interests, Judge Thokozile Masipa said in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.


Speaking ahead of sentencing paralympian Oscar Pistorius for the culpable homicide of Reeva Steenkamp, she said sentence was intended as punishment, retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation.

“Sentencing is about achieving the right balance,” she said, quoting case law.

Pistorius sat in the dock, looking at her as she spoke.

On September 12 Masipa found Pistorius guilty of the culpable homicide of model and law graduate Steenkamp, but not guilty of her murder.

Pistorius had claimed he thought there was a burglar in his toilet when he fired four shots through the locked door in the early hours of February 14 last year, killing Steenkamp.

Masipa found Pistorius guilty of discharging a firearm in public, when he shot from his friend Darren Fresco’s Glock pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, in January 2013.

Pistorius was found not guilty on two firearms-related charges – illegal possession of ammunition, and shooting through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012.

Sapa

Follow @CitiReporter on twitter for live updates from inside and outside court or click here for the live twitter feed.

For more news your way

Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.