http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/world/africa/south-african-prosecutors-start-push-to-appeal-pistoriuss-sentence.html 2014-12-09 10:34:17 South African Prosecutors Start Push to Appeal Pistorius’s Sentence “We’re saying not enough weight was given to the consequences of what happened,” the chief prosecutor said of the sentence given to the track star Oscar Pistorius. === LONDON — Weeks after a judge sent the track star The hearing was the latest twist in a drama that began on Feb. 14, 2013, when Mr. Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, a law graduate and model, at his upscale villa in a gated complex in Pretoria, the South African capital. The trial, Mr. Pistorius was The judge, Thokozile Matilda Masipa, acquitted him of murder charges but found him guilty of culpable homicide, equivalent to manslaughter. Ms. Steenkamp died after Mr. Pistorius shot four rounds from a handgun through a locked toilet cubicle door, but he said he did not know she was on the other side of it. South African judicial rules meant that Judge Masipa, who conducted Mr. Pistorius’s trial and handed down the sentence, also presided over Tuesday’s hearing, at which the chief prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, sought permission to appeal to a higher court. Mr. Pistorius’s defense lawyers plan to oppose an appeal. “We’re saying not enough weight was given to the consequences of what happened,” Mr. Nel said at the hearing at the high court in Pretoria, which was streamed live on South African news websites. Mr. Pistorius argued in court during his trial that he believed an intruder had entered his home when he opened fire. “An innocent woman was shot and killed in most horrendous circumstances,” Mr. Nel said on Tuesday. The prosecutor argued that the athlete, a double amputee since infancy who competed at the both the Olympic and “It’s not someone who fired blindly,” Mr. Nel said. “Because of all the facts, we say the element of mercy was overexaggerated.” Mr. Pistorius is serving his sentence in the hospital wing of a prison in Pretoria, and he was not present at Tuesday’s hearing, reporters in the courtroom said.