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Oscar Pistorius' appeal ruling postponed

Judge Thokozile Masipa will hand down her appeal ruling on Wednesday morning.

State prosecutor Gerrie Nel kicked off proceedings this morning with strong arguments over why the state believes it should be granted its application for leave to appeal Oscar Pistorius' sentence and conviction.

The former Blade Runner was convicted to five years in prison for Culpable Homicide for the killing of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The state's main argument is that, "if this court found that Oscar Pistorius acted with gross negligence, what precedent does a five year sentence set? "

Gerrie told the court that for what Oscar did, the sentence was shockingly inappropriate.  The state believes that Oscar should have been given a ten year sentence for Culpable Homicide. "Oscar Psitorius' sentence sets bad precedent for sentences of other people convicted of gross negligence," he explained.

Defence advocate Barry Roux argued that the state should read the court's judgement and pointed out which part of the law Judge Thokozile Masipa got wrong."This court dealt with the law correctly, but found on facts that Oscar Pistorius intended to shoot but did not intend to kill. The the law is that you can't appeal against factual findings, there is no way the state can overcome the problem that this court's finding on Dolus Eventualis was a factual one," he explained.

*Picture: Elite

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