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Bethan McKernan
Oct 20, 2015
In October 2014 Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison for the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, in one of the biggest trials in recent South African history.
The former Paralympic champion shot and killed Steenkamp through the bathroom door of his house on Valentine's Day 2013, in an act that Pistorius' lawyers said was self-defence from a suspected home intruder. The prosecution said Pistorius had a history of violence and domestic abuse.
The sentence was widely criticised as too lenient, and many feared Pistorius would be given special treatment while serving his time due to his celebrity status.
Pistorius was recommended for early release in August, and the Blade Runner was allowed to go to his uncle's house to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest yesterday, 19th October.
Pistorius spent a total of 363 days in prison. Here are 12 other people who spent much, much longer in jail either for crimes of conscience, or because of miscarriages of justice:
1. Nelson Mandela
The South African freedom fighter served 27 years for 'committing sabotage against the government', 18 of which were spent at the notorious Robben Island. He was released in 1990 and went on to win the presidency (and the Nobel Peace Prize).
2. Aung San Suu Kyi
The rights leader was under house arrest in her native Burma between 1996 - 2010 because she was 'likely to undermine the community peace and stability'. She was rarely allowed visitors, which meant she missed her sons growing up in the UK. Her husband died of cancer during her sentence.
3. Chelsea Manning
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for several charges in 2013, including violation of the Espionage Act, after disclosing thousands of documents to WikiLeaks.
4. Anthony Ray Hinton
The African-American spent 30 years on death row in Alabama wrongly convicted of two murders he didn't commit. He was released in April 2015.
5. Alfred Dreyfus
Frenchman Dreyfus was convicted of treason in 1894. He was convicted on trumped up charges in an antisemitic trial and banished to the infamous Devil's Island penal colony. He wasn't exonerated until 1906.
6. Sean Hodgson
The mentally ill man from Southampton was wrongly jailed for 27 years for murder. He was released in 2009 but died just three years later.
7. The Central Park Five
Five underage, non-white New Yorkers were found guilty of the violent gang rape of a jogger in 1990 and spent between 6-13 years in prison before their convictions were overturned. Their story was turned into a documentary by Ken Burns in 2012.
8. Darryl Hunt
African-American Hunt was convicted of rape and murder in 1984. Although DNA testing proved he didn't rape the victim, he still wasn't released from prison until 2003, when someone else confessed. He is now an active campaigner for prison and justice reform.
9. David Bain
When David Bain was 22 his entire family was murdered, and he was charged with killing his parents and three siblings. The New Zealander spent 13 years in prison before being acquitted on all charges after a retrial in 2007.
10. Sally Clark
British woman Clark lost a baby from cot death in 1996 and another in 1998. She spent three years in prison for murder before her conviction was overturned and died of alcohol poisoning shortly after her release.
11. Dr Sam Sheppard
Sheppard's story was the inspiration for the film The Fugitive. He was accused of murdering his pregnant wife in 1954 despite blood and semen at the crime scene that didn't match his own. He was exonerated after 12 years in prison, but the psychological trauma caused him to die of liver failure caused by alcoholism four years later.