Oscar Pistorius is eligible for parole after serving half of his murder sentence, new documents say

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According to recent court documents, Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympic and Paralympic runner, was found eligible for parole in March under South African law. However, he may have been wrongly denied early release from prison due to a miscalculation regarding the commencement of his murder sentence. Justice and correctional services authorities have submitted these documents to South Africa’s Constitutional Court, and they have stated that they will not oppose Pistorius’s appeal, arguing that he has served the required portion of his sentence and should be immediately considered for parole.

In South Africa, individuals sentenced to more than two years in prison must serve half of their sentence to become eligible for parole. Pistorius claims that he met this requirement when he attended a parole hearing on March 31. During that hearing, a parole board denied his early release and determined that he would not be eligible until August of the following year.

The new documents submitted to the Constitutional Court confirm that this was an error, and authorities now acknowledge that Pistorius had completed half of his sentence by March 21. These documents were presented by a senior parole board official on behalf of South Africa’s minister of justice, the commissioner of the corrections department, and parole and prison authorities.

This confusion traces back to Pistorius’s protracted and complex trial for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in February 2013. After multiple appeals, Pistorius was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison in 2017. However, this sentence reflected a deduction of the time he had already served between his initial conviction of manslaughter and his later murder conviction.

A crucial oversight occurred when determining the start date of Pistorius’s new sentence. Instead of commencing it from July 2016, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that it should begin on November 24, 2017, the date of its final judgment. This oversight omitted the 16 months that Pistorius spent in jail during the appeals process.

Pistorius’s parole lawyer had previously pointed out this mistake in April, and the new court documents reaffirm this error. Despite the clarity of the error, the Supreme Court of Appeal has not yet issued a corrected judgment.

As a result, when parole board officials sought clarification regarding Pistorius’s sentence before his March parole hearing, they received a response from the Supreme Court clerk stating that there was no new judgment altering the dates. Consequently, the parole board ruled Pistorius ineligible for early release.

Pistorius is now appealing to South Africa’s Constitutional Court, seeking immediate eligibility for parole consideration. The Constitutional Court has yet to hear the appeal, and the court documents have been submitted as pre-hearing materials.

Even if Pistorius secures a new parole hearing, his release from the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre in Pretoria is uncertain. Parole boards weigh various factors, including input from the victim’s family, when considering early release. In this case, Reeva Steenkamp’s parents had opposed Pistorius’s parole in March, and Barry Steenkamp, her father, recently passed away at the age of 80, maintaining his stance that Pistorius should remain in prison.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Parole Eligibility

More about Parole Eligibility

• Oscar Pistorius parole eligibility case: The original source for this news article.
• South African parole laws: Information on parole eligibility and laws in South Africa.
• Oscar Pistorius trial timeline: A detailed timeline of Oscar Pistorius’s trial and legal proceedings.
• South Africa’s Constitutional Court: The official website of South Africa’s highest court where Pistorius’s appeal is being submitted.