A South African appeals court overturned a culpable homicide charge against Oscar Pistorius, changing it to a murder charge.
That still might not be enough to keep the double-amputee South African behind bars for the minimum 15-year sentence that awaits him, The Guardian reported.
Oscar Pistorius Headed Back To Prison After Appeal Upgrades Charge To Murder
"First, the sentencing procedure has to get under way. There's a minimum 15 years sentence for murder, but there is judicial discretion on this, if there are compelling circumstances. We will hear evidence about his disability and how he's not an appropriate candidate for a long incarceration, especially because his psychiatric report revealed he had suicidal tendencies," Karyn Maughan, a journalist with local broadcaster eNCA, told The Guardian.
She added that Pistorius' lawyers could argue that the Court of Appeals did not take his physical predisposition as a double amputee or his generalized anxiety order into enough consideration and ask for a reduced prison term because he would be exempt from being evaluated by the same standards that befall others who commit crimes.
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Pistorius already has served almost a year in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early morning hours of Valentine's Day in 2013. It has not been discussed publicly whether a murder charge adheres to the same rules as culpable homicide in terms of eligibility for house arrest.
Pistorius was eligible for parole after serving 10 months of his five-year term for culpable homicide, which was one-sixth of his sentence. If the same rules were to apply for a 15-year sentence for a murder charge, Pistorius would be out in 2 ½ years -- and he's already served nearly 12 months. But Judge Thokozile Masipa, who originally handed a culpable homicide sentence and who is responsible for updating the sentence, could give him more than 15 years.
Kelly Phelps, a criminal law expert at the University of Cape Town, added that Pistorius' defense team still has recourse against a long jail time.
"I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a massive effort going on now to establish constitutional grounds for an appeal. The key thing with the constitution is that the scope of appeals is very broad. If one looks hard enough, you can almost always find a constitutional ground for an appeal. In a case like this, which is already in exceptional terrain because the state has taken the unusual step of appealing a conviction, there are big legal questions around double jeopardy and the legal ambit of the supreme court of appeal," she said to The Guardian.
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