In South Africa, the minimum sentence for murder is 15 years.
But on Wednesday, Oscar Pistorius, the South African double-amputee sprinter who made history when he competed in both the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics, was sentenced to only six years in prison for murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model he had been dating for three months, in 2013.
Pistorius shot Steenkamp four times through the bathroom door at his home at 3 a.m. on Valentine’s Day. He has remained adamant that he thought she was an intruder, while the prosecution argued that he snapped after the two had an argument.
According to the New York Times, Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa of the High Court in Pretoia handed out the lenient sentence because Pistorius “had shown genuine remorse in trying, repeatedly and unsuccessfully, to apologize in person to the victim’s parents.”
She also noted that at the time of the murder, Pistorius, who was regarded by many as an inspirational figure and served as the flag bearer for the country at the London Olympics, was “vulnerable” because he did not have his prostheses on.
“He’s a fallen hero who has lost his career and is ruined financially,” she said. “The worst is that having taken the life of a fellow human being in the manner that he did, he cannot be at peace.”
This is the moment #OscarPistorius is sentenced to six years in prison for his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp's murderhttps://t.co/ZKxAZx2dvV
— ITV News (@itvnews) July 6, 2016
Violence against women is an epidemic in South Africa — in 2012, it was called the “rape capital of the world” by Interpol, and some statistics show that a woman in the country is killed by her partner every eight hours. Steenkamp and her mother often spoke out about the issue. In fact, the day she died Steenkamp was scheduled to talk to a group of young girls about how she was able to escape a previous relationship that had been emotionally abusive.
In the trial, it was revealed that Steenkamp once sent a text message to Pistorius saying that she was “scared of you sometimes and how u snap at me and of how you will react to me.” One of Pistorius’ ex-girlfriends told the Mirror that Pistorius often bit and pinched her, leaving her scratched and bruised, and she was so afraid of his anger that she once hid his gun.
Steenkamp’s mother was also aware that their relationship was volatile, but didn’t know the extent of it.
“Reeva was afraid, I think, to tell me, some of the problems. She did say they were fighting all of the time, but you don’t tell your mother everything,” she said.
The day before her death, Steenkamp shared this tweet with her followers on Twitter:
WEAR BLACK THIS FRIDAY IN SUPPORT AGAINST #RAPE AND WOMAN ABUSE #BLACKFRIDAY
— Lindiwe Suttle (@lindiwesuttle) February 13, 2013
Some in South Africa are saying that this ruling is evident of how frivolously violence against women is treated in the country, while others see the sympathetic sentencing as a reflection of the power that being rich, white, and famous carries.
Judge Masipa has shown leniency to Pistorius before. In 2014, she convicted him of manslaughter for the same crime — a conviction that carried a five-year sentence, most of which could be served out in house arrest. However, last year the Supreme Court of Appeal in South Africa overturned that conviction and ruled that Pistorius was guilty of murder, and the Constitutional Court upheld that ruling.
While Masipa had the authority to reduce the 15-year minimum sentence if she found strong enough supporting evidence, the fact that it was reduced by nine years — and that Pistorius will be available for parole after only three — was a disappointment to many women’s rights advocates.
“First five years, now six years? She is an embarrassment to the justice system,” Women’s League of the African National Congress (ANCWL) spokeswoman Jacqueline Mofokeng said of Masipa. “It is an insult to women in this country.”