Prosecutors insist Pistorius must go to prison because of what they called the “horrific” nature of Steenkamp’s death. The 29-year-old model was hit in the head, arm and hip with hollow-point bullets fired by Pistorius.
Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel said that the defense’s suggestion of house arrest and 16 hours of community service a month was a “shockingly inappropriate” sentence.
Recent sentences for culpable homicide in South Africa have been cited by analysts of Pistorius’ case.
A singer known as Jub Jub had his murder conviction overturned and replaced with a culpable homicide conviction after a 2010 drag race, when he and another man ploughed their cars into a group of schoolchildren on a road, killing four and seriously injuring two. The singer was sentenced to eight years in prison for culpable homicide.
In 2011, a South African rugby player convicted of culpable homicide for the beating death of a policeman on a Pretoria road was given a five-year suspended prison sentence. He served no jail time and paid the victim’s family $85,000 in compensation.
On Monday, correctional services authorities denied media reports by a radio network that they were already preparing a cell for Pistorius in a high-security section of Pretoria Central Prison ahead of the announcement of his sentence.
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