In the Shadow of Sharpeville

Book excerpt: A history of the men who were sentenced to hang in South Africa following the death of a deputy-mayor in Sharpeville in 1984. The authors focus on the trial, sentencing, and subsequent international campaign that eventually led to their release after a stay of execution was ordered only 18 hours before the death sentence was to be carried out. Their exploration of the events also leads the authors into discussions of the way the criminal justice system in apartheid South Africa was biased against blacks. The source material for the book included countless interviews and letters written from Death Row. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR