Paraplegic Olympian Oscar Pistorius has been approved for parole in August, after serving less than a year in the hospital ward of a Pretoria prison for the vicious Valentine’s Day murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
The wealthy athlete was granted special home “correctional supervision” status over the objection of Steenkamp’s parents, as well as many others who criticize South Africa’s laissez faire approach to its runaway domestic abuse scourge.
The nation ranks one of the worst in the world for violence against women, an issue that the slain actress/model was outspoken about herself, making the social activist’s murder -- and the lenient sentencing of her repeat-offending killer -- all the more repugnant.
One positive note, however, is that prosecutors were permitted in a recent ruling to pursue their appeal of Pistorius’ lesser conviction of culpable homicide, on grounds that the South African judge failed to understand and administrate her legal obligations in the case.
According to numerous witnesses, the notoriously ill-tempered Pistorius shot and bludgeoned Reeva Steenkamp to death in 2013 following heated arguments in the hours preceding the brutally drawn out event.
He and his well-connected family then hatched a story that he’d mistaken her for an “intruder” which scarcely any of Pistorius’ countrymen, except the judge, bought into.
