Now that the Constitutional Court has denied Oscar Pistorius his application for leave to appeal his murder conviction we are left with one burning question – how many years behind bars for the disgraced former athlete?

Following the Court’s decision yesterday everyone had a number or two to throw around, but here’s what will happen according to TimesLive:

The minimum sentence for murder is 15 years, unless he can provide substantial and compelling reasons to deviate from this prescribed sentence.

Marius du Toit, a defence lawyer and former prosecutor, said he believed the High Court in Pretoria may deviate from the minimum sentence, but this did not mean that Pistorius would sit in jail for a long time.

“To be honest, circumstances of this case are so unique. It wasn’t a spousal abuse that ended up in a murder. This was a mistaken identity of a burglar and being reckless in respect of the life of the perceived burglar,” he told News24.

“Those set of facts are so unique that the court will deviate from [the minimum sentence], in my view, and find substantial and compelling reasons in his favour and also the fact that he has already served a period of time.”

Du Toit said Pistorius could find himself going to jail for 12 years instead of 15.

So we’re looking at a minimum of 12, possibly maxing out at 15 – I suppose it’s a start. There are still means for appeal left for Pistorius though, as once his sentence is handed down he can appeal that decision. Here’s du Toit again:

“If [the court] imposes 12 or 15 years he can, of course, appeal that sentence but the conviction of murder will stand, which means Oscar is guilty of murder and that’s the end of the line for him.”

Looks like Oscar can say cheers to living it up at his uncle’s house.

[source:timeslive]