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4 S. Afr. J. Crim. Just. 187 (1991)
Mr. Justice Braam Lategan, the Appellate Division and the Abolitionists

handle is hein.journals/soafcrimj4 and id is 195 raw text is: COMMENTS AANTEKENINGE Mr Justice Braam Lategan, the Appel- late Division and the abolitionists JANOS MIHALIK University of Bophuthatswana ntroduction Writing for a popular South African newspaper, a well-known political scientist Professor Herman Giliomee remarked that '[a]lmost unnoticed, South Africa has got itself in a situation where it is hanging people at a rate which would cause even the most sordid banana republic to hang its head in shame' (H Giliomee 'Hanging question over SA' Sunday Times 22 August 1988). Giliomee's voice was one of many raised again during the second half of 1988 against the death penalty after a long abolitionist silence on this issue. The immediate cause for this renewed public concern seems to have been the public debate and international pressure concerning the death sentences passed on the 'Sharpeville Six' and the pleas for clemency for four white policemen who were awaiting execution for murder. Laurence points out: 'Hanging, like most issues in South Africa, has been politi- cised. The intensification of South Africa's conflict has brought an increasing number of politically motivated people into the shadow of, and sometimes on to, the gallows' (P Laurence 'Dispute throws harsh light on the scaffold' The Star 25 November 1988). An immediate result of this campaign was the reviving of South Africa's abolitionist movement which was founded by the late Professor Barend van Niekerk in the late sixties. The 'victim' One of the first 'victims' of this renewed crusade was Mr Justice Braam Lategan who became the centre of controversy and the focus of some of

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