Johannesburg - The State’s appeal against former paralympic
athlete Oscar Pistorius's culpable homicide conviction will be heard by the
Supreme Court of Appeal in November.
In August, a judge would determine the exact November date.
Before then, the record of Pistorius’s trial and the State
and defence’s heads of argument needed to be filed, court registrar Paul
Myburgh said on Monday.
In March this year Judge Thokozile Masipa rejected the bid
by Pistorious’s lawyers to stop the State from appealing her finding that
Pistorius was guilty of culpable homicide. The State wants him convicted of the
more serious charge of murder, which carries a heavier sentence.
Interpretation of the law
In December 2014, Masipa granted the State leave to appeal
her culpable homicide conviction, saying it was based on her interpretation of
the law. Appeals can be granted based on questions of law, not on the
interpretation of the facts of the matter.
Masipa however dismissed the State’s application to appeal
Pistorius’s 5-year-jail sentence.
On September 12, 2014, Pistorius was found guilty of
culpable homicide for shooting dead his model and law-graduate girlfriend Reeva
Steenkamp. He was found not guilty of murdering her. Masipa also found him
guilty of discharging a firearm in a restaurant.
On October 21 that year, Masipa jailed him for five years
for killing Steenkamp, and for three years, suspended for five, for the
restaurant shooting.
He fired four shots through the locked door of the toilet in
his Pretoria home on Valentine's Day 2013, apparently thinking Steenkamp was an
intruder hiding inside.
Pistorius could be released on parole in August.
