State Wants Pistorius to Serve More Time in Prison

South African prosecutors wanted Oscar Pistorius to spend 15 years in jail for the 2013 murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. A judge ended up sentencing him in July 2016 to just six, and now state prosecutors are appealing in a quest to make his "shockingly low" sentence less so. Reuters reports that the appeal will be heard by the country's Supreme Court of Appeal on Nov. 3.

A rep for the National Prosecuting Authority had this to say: "We stipulate clearly that the sentence imposed is shockingly low. The presiding officer has the discretion to deviate from the minimum prescribed sentence when compelling and substantial circumstances exist. But ... with this matter, the presiding officer exercised that discretion in a very lenient manner." The Telegraph in 2016 quoted one of Pistorius' attorneys as saying the double-amputee athlete would serve "between half and two thirds" of the six years before applying for parole. The AP reports prosecutors want the sentence to be upped to 15 years. (Ahead of his 2016 sentencing, Pistorius said Steenkamp wouldn't want him jailed for long.)