Oscar Pistorius’ Sentencing Over Reeva Steenkamp’s Murder 'Shockingly Lenient': Prosecutor Demands More Jail Time

Oscar Pistorius’ legal defense team filed a rebuttal Wednesday opposing yet another appeal of the runner’s conviction by the state. In the seemingly never-ending case, the state argued in its most recent appeal that Pistorius’ conviction was “shockingly lenient.” Pistorius’ lawyer, on the other hand, said “enough is enough.”

“This matter has been legally exhausted to a point beyond legal and human comprehension,” said Pistorius’ lawyer Andrew Fawcett in Wednesday’s affidavit opposing the appeal. He stated that there is no reason to believe that the current sentence is too lenient, as Pistorius believed he was shooting at an intruder when he killed his girlfriend. “The state’s application evokes a feeling that enough is enough,” said Fawcett.

Pistorius was originally sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of culpable homicide following the killing of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day 2013. Pistorius shot his girlfriend through the bathroom door of his home in Pretoria, South Africa after he mistook her for an intruder, he claimed. The world followed the case closely as “the blade runner” was an Olympic athlete who competed on prosthetic legs and Steenkamp was a model.

After 10 months behind bars, the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned Pistorius’ culpable homicide conviction to replace it with a stronger, more serious conviction: murder. After the court found him guilty of murder, he was sentenced to another six years in Pretoria’s Kgosi Mampuru II prison, where he remains now.

The recent appeal by prosecutor Gerrie Nel called the murder sentence “shockingly lenient,” and asked for a new, more appropriate sentence, the Independent Online reported. If the State Court of Appeals rules in favor of the state, the Pistorius case could be back in the courts once again next year.