South African prosecutors say they will appeal the conviction and sentence handed down to Oscar Pistorius for the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, believing the judge went too easy on the admitted killer.  Pistorius could be out of prison and in home detention in as little as ten months.

“The prosecutors are now preparing the necessary papers in order to be able to file within the next few days,” said South African National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Nathi Mncube, adding that prosecutor Gerrie Nel “had been studying the judgment, doing research and consulting legal experts to establish if there were sufficient grounds to lodge appeals”.

Many South Africans believed the Olympic and Paralympic star athlete had gotten off too easy.  It was never in question that Pistorius shot through the en suite door in his bedroom and killed Steenkamp.  But the judge for some reason believed pistorius’ story that it was a horrible accident and he thought the person in the bathroom was a burglar.  This is even though several witnesses testified to a row between Steenkamp and Pistorius in the hours before the shooting, as well as Pistorius’ own reckless handling of firearms in the past.

The judge found Pistorius guilty of a lesser charge of culpable homicide and sentenced him to five-years in prison, which could be much less because Pistorius’ disability makes him eligible to apply for home release in as few as ten months.