The South African Supreme Court of Appeals made sure Oscar Pistorius didn't get away with murder; now Pistorius is trying to make sure that court didn't discriminate against him.
The defense team for double-amputee Olympic and Paralympic sprinter, who last month was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, is arguing that the Supreme Court of Appeals discriminated against him based on his "disability, vulnerability and anxiety," according South Africa's News 24.
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The court also exceeded its jurisdiction by questioning the trial court's factual findings.
Pistorius is appealing his murder conviction that was obtained on appeal, after his original trial court ended with a culpable homicide conviction in the Valentine's Day shooting death of Reeva Steenkamp.
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The appeal maintains that the SCA violated the law when it came to the conclusion that Pistorius didn't "entertain an honest and genuine belief that he was acting lawfully," which allowed the court to overturn the culpable homicide conviction in favor of murder.
Pistorius had served one year of his five-year culpable homicide sentence and was under house arrest when the SCA upgraded the charge against him. With a murder charge, Pistorius faces a minimum of 15 years in prison.
The court of appeals reconsidered the defense's claim that Pistorius genuinely believed that his and Steenkamp's lives were in danger when he shot four times into an upstairs bathroom door in his Pretoria, South Africa home, which his lawyers labeled his "putative private defense."
Even though his defense was an erroneous assumption, the SCA had no authority to rule on that defense, according to his appeal.
In its decision, the SCA introduced an "objective rational criterion" of a "rational person" in coming to the conclusion that Pistorius was guilty of murder, according to Pistorius' appeal.
"In doing so, the SCA ignored Pistorius's subjective state of the mind, in particular his anxiety disorder, his serious physical disability and his feelings of vulnerability," News 24 added.
Pistorius, who remains free on bail, must return to the chambers of his original trial court judge, Judge Thokozile, for re-sentencing on April 18.
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