Pistorius asks top court to hear appeal of murder conviction

His lawyers have now lodged legal papers at South Africa’s Constitutional Court, asking for a review of the murder conviction.

The judges said his experience with firearms meant he should have been aware that death was an inevitability after firing four times into such a confined area, which had left Reeva Steenkamp with “nowhere to hide”.

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.

In December, an appeals court threw out a lower court’s lesser manslaughter conviction and found Pistorius guilty of murder.

Asked whether papers were filed requesting leave to appeal Pistorius’s conviction, family spokesperson Anneliese Burgess said: “Yes”.

Pistorius spent just under a year in prison before being transferred to house arrest, which he remains under. He is now out on bail.

‘The application has been served on the director of public prosecution.

‘Then we wait for the Constitutional Court to make a ruling on whether or not they will hear the appeal’.

Reeva Steenkamp with Oscar Pistorius. “It is certainly not a constitutional matter”, Tyrone Maseko, a Johannesburg attorney told AFP.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp at the peak of his fame, and has since lost his glittering sports career, lucrative contracts and status as a global role model for the disabled.