Paralympian Oscar Pistorius has been freed on parole from a South African jail, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Officials confirmed Pistorius was “at home” on Friday morning, having served half of his more than 13-year sentence.
Ms Steenkamp’s mother said she accepted the decision to release the former athlete - but added her family was the one “serving a life sentence”.
. . .
Under South African law, all offenders are entitled to be considered for parole, meaning early release under certain conditions, once they have served half their total sentence, which for Pistorius was finally set at 13 years and five months.
The prosecutors successfully charged him with murder.
They couldn’t prove that he knew it was her on the other side of the door.
That’s exactly what the state bungled up.
The state could have got a premeditated murder charge out of this which would have required him to be sentenced to life in prison. Some of the facts the state presented in the first trial should raise the question of premeditation.
The State proved its case of intention to kill, yes dolus directus vs dolus eventualis but couldn’t prove premeditation. Therefore minimum sentencing guideline of 15 years applied.
Premeditation doesn’t necessarily mean the murder has to be planned, but all planned murders are premeditated. You can read more about here:
https://www.derebus.org.za/murder-intention-premeditation-pre-planned-what-does-it-all-mean/