PhotoSouth Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday more than doubled the sentence imposed by a lower court on Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee Olympic sprinter convicted of killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in his home in February 2013. Ms. Steenkamp, 29, was a model and law graduate, and Mr. Pistorius, now 31, had been an emblem of triumph over adversity after the amputation in his infancy of both legs below the knee. The Supreme Court of Appeal increased the sentence on Friday to 15 years but deducted the time he has already served either in prison or under house arrest, meaning that he faces an outstanding sentence of 13 years and five months. South African law sets 15 years as the recommended minimum for murder, but it can be lower if there are mitigating circumstances. Only when he smashed down the door, he said at his trial, did he discover that he had shot Ms. Steenkamp.

Source: New York Times November 24, 2017 08:40 UTC