We last checked in with Oscar Pistorius back in October 2014. He had been found guilty of culpable homicide (in American terms, that’s akin to manslaughter) for the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and sentenced to five years in prison. Considering some South African legal experts thought it was possible that Pistorius could have ended up with an even lighter sentence (like house arrest), five years sounded okay. Not great. I think the majority of us believed Pistorius should have gone away for much longer, and that the homicide of Reeva Steenkamp was not manslaughter but murder. Well, guess what? Prison officials have given notice that they believe Pistorius should be released and serve out the rest of his sentence with house arrest.
Prison officials have recommended that Oscar Pistorius, who killed his girlfriend, be released from prison Aug. 21 for good behavior after serving just 10 months and be moved to house arrest, the head of correctional services said on Monday. The news emerged the same day the country’s Supreme Court of Appeal announced the prosecution’s appeal against Pistorius’ acquittal on a murder charge for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp would be heard in November.
Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympic athlete, was found guilty of culpable homicide for shooting Steenkamp multiple times through a closed toilet door in his home in 2013. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Under South African law, he is eligible to be released under conditions after serving one-sixth of his sentence, which is 10 months in this case.
Acting National Commissioner of Correctional Services Zach Modise said Monday that a prison committee recommended last week that Pistorius be released from the prison in Pretoria on Aug. 21, exactly 10 months after he was sentenced and meaning he will have served the minimum amount of jail time his sentence required. Modise said the committee made the recommendation on the basis of Pistorius’ good behavior in the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in the capital, Pretoria, where he has been incarcerated since Oct. 21.
“He’s behaving himself very well,” Modise said. “He hasn’t given us any problems.”
Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said the exact conditions of Pistorius’ house arrest wouldn’t be made public. The prison’s parole board had not yet made the final decision to release Pistorius, and the world-famous runner must “keep behaving well” to be released, Modise said. If released, Pistorius would be under strict probation conditions and would be monitored, Modise said. He said authorities would consider allowing him to begin training again.
However, Pistorius will also again face the possibility of a minimum of 15 years in prison if a panel of judges at the Supreme Court of Appeal overturns the original decision in his murder trial and convicts him of murder. The court has not yet set an exact date for the start of the appeal, court registrar Paul Myburgh said, but it will be this November.
That is some interesting legal system you’ve got there, South Africa. Five year sentence and out in ten months? Granted, I’m sure some states in America (like California) offer those kinds of deals too, but not for violent offenses. While I don’t believe in mandatory-minimums for nonviolent offenses (like drugs), why isn’t there a bigger call for mandatory minimums for violent offenses? Even if you take the court’s verdict at face value – that Pistorius is basically guilty of homicidal negligence – why on earth would he be let out in 10 months? Ugh.
Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.
Ugh. I’m going to go look at Hiddleston some more, the mere thought that this egomaniacal DB is essentially getting away with murder is loathsome.
I’m convinced that there is zero justice in the world. When it comes to violence towards a partner the book needs to be thrown at the abuser. I have a zero tolerance for abuse of any kind.
I feel the same way, aims. There is no justice. You will never convince me that he didn’t kill her intentionally, and he got a very minor slap on the wrist. He will hurt or kill another woman. Just wait. Meanwhile, that lovely young woman he slaughtered is dead and he got 10 months. Sickening.
I cannot imagine what her family is going through right now.
And I am sure his 10 months were filled with privileges that other inmates don’t usually receive.
Mouth hangs open. …..such a horrible mockery of justice.
I guess:
Well-known Olympic double-amputee male who has not abused or killed any models while in jail > dead young woman of lesser note now silenced
Great critical thinking skills there, South Africa. How’s the 18th century?
There is no need for personal attacks on my country!!!
Crazy, and I thought death penalty would be so 18th century…
honeybea, I don’t think Liberty or anyone else was attacking your country, moreso the justice system – or lack of, in this case. It’s a travesty.
Disgusting. My only hope is he crawls into a deep dark hole and we never hear from him or see his face again.
Yes, I agree with you on this one. What kind of Justice is that for her and her family.
maybe her spirit will haunt his ass till the end of time..
How does he sleep at night knowing what he did..
Trust me he sleeps just fine at night. Because at the end of the day (end of everyday actually) he truly believes it was HER fault. SHE Provoked him. SHE didn’t do/act/breathe how he wanted her to. So it’s not HIS fault he lost his temper. This is how abusers think. It’s all about them. So trust me, he feels no guilt. If anything, he probably feels resentment about how SHE wrongly made him mad and now HE has to suffer in prison for 10 months. :S
Are they basing their petition for release on the fact that this was basically domestic violence and he’s not really a threat to the public? Because that’s faulty logic. If he murdered once, it seems he’s capable of doing it again. And ten months in prison is barely a slap on the wrist.
He also has a history of being violent with women. Not necessarily women he was intimately involved with but he’s certainly shown he has no issue with it.
WTF WTF WTF??! First of all, he straight up murdered that girl, and anyone with a functioning brain knows that. Second, this just another sickening example of how the world in general views violence against women. If she had somehow got hold of that gun and shot him in selfdefense I guarantee she would have got life in prison. I am so angry.
I just wrote a similar response. This is ridiculous. So much rage!
Absolutely. Women all around the world can be victims of domestic violence and general misogyny and yet that is not taken seriously, it’s even joked about.
Totally agree. He murdered that beautiful girl in cold blood. Crazy, jealous, self-aggrandizing pr*ck. If he’d been a black unheard-of man from the Townships, he’d have got life, no question.
His crocodile tears in court were sickening. She was worth at least 10 of him. RIP Reeva.
No no no no. F%^#£€…..!!!
But I’m not surprised, that’s the sad part.
Also, I do think he’s at high risk to reoffend because of his arrogance, sense of entitlement and hair trigger temper.
Does anyone know if he will still be allowed to compete?
Yes, according to the International Paralympic Committee’s decision. But he would have to wait until 2019.
Taking a woman’s life is only worth 10 months of jail time.
Rage inducing!
If roles were reversed she would be in jail for life. This is sick.
Just when we think Reeva’s family has suffered enough. I am appalled. F this guy.
Ugh f*ck this. I honestly have nothing more eloquent to say because I’m just so beyond f*cking angry that women’s lives are apparently still worth so little. Reeva and the ones who loved her deserved so much more than this. I really hope that POS at least has the decency to hole up somewhere and never show his face in public again but somehow sadly I doubt it.
disgusting and disheartening.
As per Tim Gunn: “This is disgusting and vile.”
I knew this guy would get out way earlier than his sentence mandated. So f*cked up, but this is what’s considered “justice” when it comes to domestic violence.
Is he…drooling? in that picture? what is that?
It is. He was crying and carrying on during the trial. That was some serious acting he was doing.
Seriously bad acting – he made a spectacle of himself in court – made him look even more guilty.I believe Reeva was afraid for her safety, locked herself in the bathroom and he shot her thru the door. Five years is pathetic, but he should at least be made to serve every damn day of it.
How surprising. NOT
I don’t understand the whole “He is behaving himself very well” argument. Does this do the woman he killed any good? Does it do her family any good?
Not making trouble in prison should be the expectation and not doing so should lead to harsher punishment.
The murderer didn’t harm his inmates or the people working there so he deserves a cookie. WTF?
NO KIDDING! It’s not even like he’s around other young, attractive women that he refrained from killing! He just refrained from attacking other inmates/guards (who are big and could potentially hurt him). He’s a coward that preys on those weaker than him.
Time off for good behavior is common, just to avoid problems with prisoners. In the U.S., it’s usually about half your sentence that gets cut except if there is overcrowding – then you could get out as early as in South Africa or earlier. He probably isn’t considered inherently violent if the conviction was equivalent to manslaughter in the U.S. I don’t see how any judge could be convinced that it was murder under the circumstances, there just was no clear evidence for that conclusion. You can’t convict people based on CB readers gut feelings…:) But they could convict on the lesser charges, and they did.
Not sure why anybody is surprised, though. Didn’t any of the reporting mention the time off for good behavior? Or was everybody assuming he would go ballistic and never get the good behavior time off?
I don’t think that anybody is surprised this is happening. We just don’t like it.
Outrageous that this pschyopath has gotten away with murder, I hope there is an afterlife for people like him to burn in. I feel so sorry for this poor girl who lost her life and her devastated family who face this injustice on top of losing their daughter.
Shame on everyone who facilitated him to becoming the narcissistic pschyopath he is, his family disgusted me with their excuses for him and minimisation of his actions and consequences. That’s where his entitlement to abuse and murder came from. It’s all about him.
I don’t even have words to express my rage… Nice judicial system… Justice ?? What’s that?
I feel terrible for saying this, but those of us who pay attention know it’s true — I wonder how long it will take for him to beat or kill the next one.
Deep breath. Must not let my blood pressure go up.
Sadly, I’m not surprised. If there’s such a thing as instant karma, I wish it on him.
Nice. Now let’s give him a medal.
Reeva is dead and buried never to live a fulfilling long life after having it brutally cut short by this murderer. And he will skip off into the sunset free as a bird likely to commit some other heinous crime in the future. What’s to stop him? A light sentence that adds up to little more than a slap on the wrist? The way the world works is becoming more incomprehensible by the day.
This is misogyny. This is class discrimination. This is racism.
This sets a precedent on the world stage. For shame, South Africa. For shame.
Is he still dating the 19 year old, or did prison cramp their relationship?
I’m wondering that too. Please say she dumped him :S
I can’t believe he’ll actually serve less time in prison than it took to try him in court.
Am not shocked – at the time i thought he’d only do 10 months and spend the rest on license. Even during the trail he showed his violent side – getting into fights in nightclubs. Someone with a documented violent temper should have got much longer – for someone who fought to be treated the same as able bodied people – his defence surely played up his ‘disabilities’ during his trial for murder.
He’ll reoffend – he got away with murder so god only knows what that will do to his already massive ego. He has previous for hitting women.
He and Josh Duggar should be locked in the main prison with all the hard core inmate – see how manly they are then.
“his defence surely played up his ‘disabilities’ during his trial for murder.”
They absolutely did. All the talk about how he felt vulnerable without his legs rang really false with me. I’ve known plenty of double amputees and they can still get around quite well without their legs on, I once saw a kid who had the same length legs as Oscar beat half the field in a running race with no prosthetics on. Oscar, as a full grown and very fit man with a gun, wouldn’t have felt at any real disadvantage.
He is an evil POS. That is all.
I don’t even have the words to explain how gutted I am and I can’t even imagine what her family is going through. I can’t believe I stay in this country. Oscar is POS point blank he does not deserve to b free. Reeva was such a beautiful lady nd had her whole life ahead of her. He kills her and only gets what 10 months now I ask u how is that justice? I can’t I just can’t even form the words. I just wish that karma f*cks him over like a b*tch on heat.