The trial in Grahamstown lasted 78 days, and there were emotional pleas for mercy. But after finding two white policemen guilty of murdering a black man, Justice N.W. Zietsman last week did not hesitate to apply harsh punishment. The sentence: death by hanging. The condemned men, Warrant Officer Leon de Villiers, 37, and Constable David Goosen, 27, were members of a ten-man antiriot unit in eastern Cape province that went on a "black-bashing" spree during disturbances in 1986. After concluding that one of the victims, Mlungisi Stuurman, had been too badly beaten to be let go, De Villiers ordered Goosen to...
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