Oscar Pistorius denied right to appeal murder conviction
Thursday 3 March 2016 19:19, UK
Oscar Pistorius has been denied the right to appeal his murder conviction by South Africa's constitutional court.
Pistorius made a last-ditch attempt to appeal against his murder conviction for shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
The 29-year-old former athlete will now be sentenced for murder after South Africa's highest court dismissed his legal challenge.
"The court dismissed the application for leave to appeal because there are are no prospects of success," Luvuyo Mfaku, spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, told news agency AFP.
Pistorius' manslaughter conviction for shooting dead his girlfriend was upgraded to murder by an appeals court in December.
The judges said he should have known that death was inevitable after he fired four times into the toilet, leaving Ms Steenkamp with "nowhere to hide".
It ruled that the original trial judge had made a "fundamentally flawed" judgement.
Pistorius now faces a lengthy jail term and is on bail until his sentencing - a date for which could be set at a hearing on 18 April.
The double-amputee killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine's Day three years ago, saying he mistook her for an intruder when he shot four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.
