Pistorius "broke and broken"
October 17, 2014
On the fifth and final day of his sentence hearing in Pretoria, South Africa on Friday, Pistorius was seen weeping in dock as his lawyer made a final attempt to keep the sprinter from being sent to prison, arguing that his client was not a "cold-blooded killer."
Pistorius was convicted in September of the manslaughter of Reena Steenkamp, his girlfriend, and faces up to 15 years in one of South Africa's toughest prisons. The prosecution is asking for a sentence of at least 10 years.
"He's lost everything, he was an icon in the eyes of South Africa," the court heard as defense attorney Barry Roux described his "broke and broken" client who has lost all his money over the course of the seven-month trial.
'Shockingly inappropriate'
In response to Pistorius' plea for a lesser sentence, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said on Friday it was "disturbing" that a man who wanted to compete with able bodied athletes "wants now to be treated as disabled." He added that an alternative sentencing of house arest in a "fancy" area of Pretoria and 16 hours community service a month was "shockingly inappropriate."
Nel, who has become known in the courtroom as "Pitbull," told Judge Thokozile Masipa that "the seriousness of the crime by far outweighs the circumstances" of the defendant's disability."
Manslaughter
The South African double-amputee Paralympian champion, who also competed in races at the 2012 Olympics, went on trial on March 3, 2014 after he fired four hollow point bullets through a locked toilet door in his Pretoria home, killing his girlfriend of three months. Pistorius claimed he believed he had been shooting at an intruder.
Judge Thokozile Masipa is expected to deliver Pistorius' sentence on Tuesday.
ksb/glb (Reuters, AFP, Ap, dpa)