Two death sentences imposed before the South African...

Two death sentences imposed before the South African Constitutional court abolished the death penalty in 1995 were set aside by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
Sarah Lambani's death sentence for killing her employer in July 1993 was set aside and replaced by life imprisonment.
The death sentence of one of her co-accused, Daniel Musingadi, was also set aside and replaced with a sentence of 16 years imprisonment.
The case arose out of the robbery and murder of Catharina Dercksen on the farm Doornspruit in the Louis Trichardt district (now Makhado). Lambani was a domestic worker for Dercksen's parents who stayed in a second house on the same farm.
The death sentences of Lambani and Musingadi were the last to come before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) under the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977, as it stood then, which granted all those sentenced to death an automatic right of appeal to the SCA.
Two other accused in the case, Samuel Malenga and David Muthidza, who were sentenced by the Pretoria High Court to 18 and 20 years imprisonment respectively, also appealed against their sentences, which were dismissed.
In his judgment, acting Judge of Appeal Jock Comrie expressed his dismay at the unexplained delay in the case that took ten years to reach the SCA. He said in the ordinary course the case should have come before the court eight or more years ago.