Oscar Pistorius’s Sentencing Hearing Shifts Focus to South Africa’s Prisons

Last month, Judge Masipa convicted Mr. Pistorius, 27, of culpable homicide — equivalent to manslaughter — in the killing of Ms. Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model, on Feb. 14, 2013. But the judge acquitted him of more serious murder charges.

Photo

The sentencing hearing of Oscar Pistorius at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, entered its fourth day on Thursday. CreditPool photo by Siphiwe Sibeko

The penalty for culpable homicide can range from a fine to 15 years in jail. The defense has urged that Mr. Pistorius be sentenced to house arrest.

The athlete has admitted to firing shots through a locked toilet cubicle door that killed Ms. Steenkamp, but he says he mistakenly believed that an intruder had entered his home.

“My family are not people who are seeking revenge,” Ms. Martin testified for the prosecution. “We just feel that to take someone’s life, to shoot somebody behind a door, that is unarmed, that is harmless, needs sufficient punishment.”

She added, "We need to send a message to society that you cannot get away with this.”

Gerrie Nel, the chief prosecutor, also called Zach Modise, the acting head of South Africa’s correctional services, to testify that the country’s prisons — depicted by the defense as overcrowded, harsh and unhealthy environments dominated by criminal gangs — were equipped for disabled people, offering single-cell accommodation, vocational training, health care, sports facilities and gyms.

Mr. Modise acknowledged that there were gangs “trying to take over” prisons but said that correctional officers had developed a strategy to try to curb their power. Under cross-examination by a defense lawyer, Barry Roux, Mr. Modise said a hospital wing would provide the most suitable accommodation in prison for a disabled person.

Asked to provide statistics for the Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria, Mr. Modise said it had 7,000 inmates, one doctor and five psychologists. He declined to guarantee that Mr. Pistorius would be housed in a hospital wing if sentenced to a prison term.

“There’s nothing that’s taken for granted on admission,” he said.

Judge Masipa later adjourned the trial until Friday for final arguments by the defense and prosecution lawyers, who can both appeal the sentence she hands down. She did not say when she would decide on Mr. Pistorius’s punishment.