South African court rejects Pistorius right to appeal murder conviction

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku confirmed the decision not to allow Pistorius to challenge the decision to the Reuters news agency.

The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, though a judge can reduce that sentence for what the law describes as exceptional circumstances.

After South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the initial conviction and found him guilty of murder in December, he was released on bail, with the stipulation that he wear an electronic monitoring device and travel only a limited distance from home between 7 a.m. and noon. He served a year of that sentence in prison before being transferred to house detention.

Pistorius killed his model girlfriend on Valentine’s Day two years ago, after he fired four shots into the toilet door behind which she was.

The Constitutional Court was Pistorius’ last life line to escape a sentence on a charge of murder.

The case will now proceed to sentencing, with a hearing scheduled for April 18. The appellate court rejected her ruling, saying he should have known firing a weapon into a bathroom door in which he believed an intruder was located could have killed that intruder.

Prosecutors now want Pistorius to serve no less than 15 years in prison for the murder conviction. He is now under house arrest, staying at his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria.

The athlete, nicknamed “Blade Runner” because of the prosthetic legs he uses to race, had filed papers to appeal against his conviction at the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, on January 11.

Pistorius, a multiple Paralympic champion, became the first amputee to run at the Olympics and the able-bodied World Championships.