Sentencing about balance – Judge Masipa

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

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