South African amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius will be released to “correctional supervision” after serving just under a year in prison on a culpable homicide conviction for shooting and killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in 2013. (Culpable homicide in South Africa means “unlawful or negligent killing” and is comparable to the U.S. charge of manslaughter.) From the Associated Press:
The parole board made the decision Thursday after an initial decision to release the double-amputee runner in August was canceled.
He will be moved to correctional supervision, a form of house arrest where he will have to live under certain conditions.
Pistorius, a Paralympic champion who was born without fibulas in his legs, won an appeal to the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport that allowed him to compete in the 2012 London Olympics. (He didn’t medal.) Late at night on Valenentine’s Day 2013, he shot Steenkamp three times while she was in his bathroom, killing her. Prosecutors said he did so intentionally after arguing with her; he said he believed she was an intruder, and a judge ultimately ruled that prosecutors had not fully proven their case.
Since his formal sentence runs for five years despite his release from prison, Pistorius has been ruled ineligible for Paralympic competition until 2019. The International Olympic Committee hasn’t commented on his eligibility but did say in a brief statement last year that it had “take[n] note” of his sentence. (The rules of correctional supervision don’t seem to indicate specifically whether he would be allowed to travel for work.)
