*THE GRIPPING NEW DRAMA AS SEEN ON NETFLIX* South Africa, 1987.Apartheid. When Leon, a white 19-year-old prison guard working on death row commits an inexplicable act of violence, killing seven black men in a hail of bullets, the outcome of the trial - and the court’s sentence - seems a foregone conclusion.
Hotshot lawyer John Weber (played by Steve Coogan) reluctantly takes on the seemingly unwinnable case. A passionate opponent of the death penalty, John discovers that young Leon worked on death row in the nation’s most notorious prison, under traumatic conditions: befriending the inmates over the years while having to assist with their eventual execution.
As the court hearings progress, the case offers John the opportunity to put the entire system of legally sanctioned murder on trial. How can one man take such a dual role of friend and executioner, becoming both shepherd and butcher? Inspired by true events, this is the story that puts the death penalty on trial and changes history.
Although set in South Africa, the book's themes are universal, and, in my view, should be compulsory reading in Criminal Procedure, Criminology, Jurisprudence (Philosophy of Law) and Forensic Psychology courses. I rated this book four- although I toyed with 5- for two main reasons: first, the author (the alter ego of Weber in the book)writes from a position of deep and intimate personal knowledge,having practised law in the courts of South Africa for many years. This results in painstaking accuracy of detail, with the comcomitant accurate explanation of legal principles and procedures. I read the book on three simultaneous levels: as a work of fiction; as a work of legal philosophy, and as a practical guide to the inticracies and challenges of the criminal process. I also had fun trying to detect the influences on the author's writing. One example will suffice: Marnewick was the defence lawyer in the famous -in South Africa, at least- Xerxes Nursingh murder trial (a young male student who gunned down his mother- a hospital surgeon and administrator- with a shotgun). Marnewick secured Nursingh's aquittal by relying on a the then-new defence of non-pathological criminal incapacity (similar to the defence in the Mendendezes' brothers' trial)- and the fictional defence postulated in the book is merely a plausible extension of this defence (as is the so-called battered-wife syndrome defence). On the last two scores, the book works wonderfully for me- it really raises pertinent questions about the pro's and cons- legally and morally- of the death penalty (and to the author's credit, he does not take sides here, and leaves the reader to make up his/her own mind). As far as the story itself is concerned, I intended to read it in instalments, but it quickly turned into a page-turner that demanded to be read in one sitting. It is the kind of book that remains in your mind long after you have read it- the same effect that To Kill a Mockingbird and Catch 22 had on me. Which leads me to the loss of the fifth star- the author needs to loosen up a bit stylistically. The book thankfully eschews the use of adjectives and hyperbole, and asks the reader to draw inferences from detailed narrative and description (in the best traditions of Hemingway), but herein lies a weakness: the prose, in places, becomes too sparse, making emotional identification with the influences on Leon Labuschagne's psyche too difficult. Perhaps the almost documentary style was intentional- it certainly draws attention to the characters' reliance on the cop-out of 'administrative processes' to avoid facing up to the emotional consequences and costs of their actions- but it does detract from the readers' empathy with them. The latter is, however, a small point: I am convinced that the passage of time will elevate this book to a modern classic. Robin Palmer, Durban.
This is the most disturbing book I have read in a long time, if not ever. If I did not have work and other commitments, I would have read the book in one sitting. It is not a crime novel, or a suspense novel. I don't really know what genre it would fit into. The events in the book take place in a time when the death sentence was still legal in South Africa. In the current South Africa with the high crime statistics and sometimes really cruel cruel killings, we think many a time that it would be good to bring the death sentence back. But this book pulls the rug out from right under your feet. Not as such because of the criminal that gets the death sentence, but for the other human beings that have to be a part of the execution.
In the book the warders have to look after the condemned prisoners, help them read from the Bible in their last days on death row, help them write letters, be with them during visits with their families and in the end be with them when they go to the gallows, hear their necks break as the trapdoors fall open and they fall and swing at the end of the rope. And listen to their last sounds while dying. Then take them down, wash the bodies and be present at their burials. Without any trauma counceling afterwards.
Like the one psychologist said; "You cannot make them shepherds and butchers at the same time." In other countries where the death sentence is still legal, the executioner and the escort of the condemned man in that last moments, are not familiar with the condemned in any way. It takes a very high toll on a person's psyche to kill a person he knows.
The book came to haunt me in my sleep, which has very rarely happened to me, and I read a lot. This book is not for the feint hearted. The explanations and descriptions of how an execution takes place through hanging is vivid and graphic. It fits the purpose of the storyline, but it is something that will haunt me for a very very long time. The book crawled into a space in my head and I think going forward I will always have mixed feelings about capital punishment.
Too many times, the death penalty is discussed as a mere abstraction, a philosophical argument. With this excellent book, anyone can have a proper look at what it really means to kill a man in the name of the Law. But it is even worse in this case, because on South African death row, the staff is expected to be shepherds and butchers at the same time. When he is put up to this peculiar job, Leon is only seventeen years old!... His is the kind of story that, once read, is etched in your mind forever. The book is based upon true facts. It provides loads and loads of food for thought. Whenever somebody with no apparent mental disorder makes themselves a killer all of a sudden, as if on a whim, for no obvious reason, you can rest assured there's more to it than meets the eye. Never judge a man until you've been standing in his shoes, which is not to say you can turn a blind eye to anything he does. Human nature is a very complicated thing. That is why Justice -in any country - should never rush up things in order to reach a verdict. Two friends of mine were once, in different courts of law, handpicked as members of the jury. Both told me exactly the same thing: the experience sent them reeling, so much so that they've hoped ever since never to have to do it again. Capital punishment has been abolished in South Africa since Nelson Mandela was voted in, but as of 2024, it is still legal in no fewer than 53 countries. Let me end this with a quote by British hangman Albert Pierrepoint: "It is said to be the easiest form of death known to man... But it is not for the man who has to do it."
"In the cycle of killing there is a beginning, but no end"
Lawyer Johan Weber, has just returned to his chambers after a long and tiring session in court. The last thing he needs is for anyone to arrive unannounced. Unfortunately, his desire to have some quiet time is interrupted when his secretary comes into his office to say that Roshnee Kissoon Singh, a human rights lawyer is waiting to see him.
She tells him that Lawyers for Human Rights has taken on the pro bono case of a young white warder who shot and killed seven young black men in what seemed to start as road rage but ended in cold-blooded murder.
He reluctantly takes on the case. One of the first tasks that he gives his junior advocate Pedrie Wierda, is to discover exactly how many hangings the accused, Leon Labuschagne was not only present at, but was gallows escort to a person being hanged.
At first, Leon Labuschagne refuses to talk or share any details of how involved the gallows escorts were in the process. With perseverance, Weber gets him to talk. What Johan Weber and Pedrie Wierda learn is hard for them to grasp. The psychiatrist asked to assess Labuschagne is convinced that something triggered him on the night of the killing to act in the way that he did. It's up to Weber and Wierda to find the trigger and to also to understand just how the system worked in the very secretive world of Pretoria Central Prison.
This is not "light entertainment". Chris Marnewick has used the court case of Leon Labuschagne to highlight what took place in Pretoria Central. The gallows were set up to hang seven men at the same time. In 1987 a "record" was broken. One hundred and sixty-four were hanged, of which, between the period 26 November to 10 December, thirty-two men were hanged.
At the time, young white South African men were called up immediately after completing their final year of schooling to do their National Service. Some refused to go into the army and took – what they thought were going to be easier options; they joined the police or as described in this book, the prison service. Chris Marnewick has introduced us to Leon Labuschagne, a seventeen-year-old, who decides to join as a prison warder. What he didn't expect to happen was to be forced on his first day on the job, to have to watch men being hanged.
As a South African looking back at this period, I see myself as a mother of two children aged ten and twelve, living a good life on a smallholding where our lives were filled with events at school, road running, horse riding, long walks with the dogs and many Sundays spent at the beach. We were completely oblivious to these shocking barbaric events taking place in Pretoria, where those hanged were not even given the dignity or respect of being buried in a shroud - they were simply tossed naked, into a cheap pine box. I hear you ask how can I say I was unaware of what was happening in the country? The government at the time had ensured through laws that newspapers in South Africa had virtually no voice to raise any kind of criticism. There were no overseas newspapers or news channels available to watch on television. The public was kept in the dark.
Chris Marnewick has written this chilling account of how this barbaric practice took place, month in, month out. Were there any young men like Leon Labuschagne who had complete mental breakdowns because of what they had witnessed? I'm sure there were but they, like other facts were buried under the secrecy blanket.
I need to add a bizarre footnote and because it seems so strange. While reading through various articles on the history of The Pretoria Central Prison. (which has recently restored and is now a monument) I discovered that there were two Chris Barnards in South Africa who were famous: Dr Chris Barnard the world pioneer in heart transplants with one ambition; restoring life and normal living to patients who would otherwise have died and then there was Chris Barnard the executioner. He could put the rope around each of the necks of the seven to be hanged and reach the lever to drop the condemned in eighteen seconds. He executed around 1,500 people in his role as hangman. Both, I found had retired before the cases referred to in this book. However, it still makes me think that truth is stranger than fiction
Treebeard
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Shepherds and Butchers is a gritty and disturbing novel that draws on the author Chris Marnewick's huge personal experience of the South African criminal justice system as an advocate and judge, takes a no-holds barred look at the vexed issue of the death penalty and South Africa's violent crime epidemic. In the final years before democratic rule in South Africa, hundreds of criminals were executed in Pretoria Central by young men of the Prison Service assisting the Hangman. When one of these young warders shoots seven members of a karate club dead in a seemingly unprovoked incident, he goes on trial with seemingly little chance of avoiding the death penalty himself. His trial exposes the systematic brutalisation of the warders as they struggle with the macabre logistics of hanging up to seven men or women a day while at the same time exposed intimately to the death row prisoners in the days leading up to their execution and their dying minutes. They also meet and escort families of the condemned prisoners and finally dress and bury their bodies in unparked graves. At a crucial point in the trial evidence an expert witness observes, you cannot expect men to be both shepherds and butchers! The novel finds a balance between exploring the brutality and depravity of the crimes they have committed and the barbaric mechanics of death by hanging and in so doing presents a conundrum to which their seems to be no easy answer. Don't waste your time on the one dimensional and disappointing film version of the book, this is a difficult and often traumatic read but an essential one for anyone who holds strong views on South Africa's crime wave and possible solutions...
As other readers concluded, this is a dense text but has a great payoff. I picked it up as part of reading about Apartheid from the Afrikaner perspective and this text delivered for me.
A warning that there is graphic and shocking violence depicted.
The central theme of the text is violence and what makes or counts for a society or person to be “violent”, in the most abstract sense. Was Apartheid South Africa violent to it’s white inhabitants? To women? In what ways does or can a human have both the “shepherd” and “butcher” within them, in any sense, and what are the effects of this? Even the smallest remarks from the narrator fit into this theme.
To fully profit from the text, I suggest mulling every paragraph particularly slowly. The text is dry on first impression, but I think this is because I was reading to quickly and missing the subtleties. Trusting that the author was purposeful in every sentence enriches this book.
I found the book a brilliant read. It makes the reader think. The four stars are for the few irregularities in the book that was told to me by someone close to me that worked there in that exact year. 1. They did not get payed per hanging. 2. there were no washers on the coffins. 3. the person that gave the details to the author worked in the kitchen of prison. He NEVER attended any death penalty cases.
All other facts in the book about the procedures and daily tasks of the wardens are are accurate. Also accurate is the fact that they have and will always struggle with what was forced on them to do.
My someone is only opening up about it now after he has bought and read the book and have asked us to read it so that we can understand why he is the way he is.
You can't want from men to be Shepherds and Butchers... choose one!" May 25, 2017 – 15.0% "But they become monsters... slowly by slowly...
Taking humans life... has never been an easy job...
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Who gives you the right to take somebody's life?" May 25, 2017 – 15.0% "They thought that they are doing good... punishing the bad boys..." May 25, 2017 – Started Reading"
- One rope is the distance between black and white......
Dark and haunting. There are many reasons that makes this book a good book, but part of me always knows that other people may think different than me and may find reasons why this book is not so great as I make it out to be. So I played with the idea of giving the book 4 stars just in case this story is not perfect. In the end I gave the book 5 stars, because in my mind I could find no reason why this book is not perfect and does not deserve 5 stars.
What a wonderful book! I saw the movie and was so mesmerized, I just had to read the book as well. I was not dissapointed. I think this is book that each and every South African should read. You will certainly look differently at the death penalty. Just something I've never thought about, is the fact that a warder spend a few months with the convicted before that same warder takes the convicted to the gallows. That is after some sort of relationship has been formed. No further spoilers.
a harrowing book which portrays legal executions in unprecedented detail, revealing their devastating impact on all those involved. At the same time, it exposes the callous violence on the other side of the noose, where murderers reign...it is a must read especially when debating the abolition or not of the death penalty.
I am sure that many, if not all of us, can think of crimes warranting death sentences. Although this book might not be suitable for sensitive readers, it highlights the near unavoidable psychological impact on those tasked with killing for the State. It is a difficult read, but an important one.
I can't even tell you how many people I have given this book to. I note that there was a movie made about it. As usual, the movie doesn't do it justice. A must read for anyone. Powerful.
Found the book frustrating due to the author’s writing style and didn’t find it flowed when he incorporated background on the people hanged. The film was far more enjoyable.
When I first began reading This book I began to wonder if I would finish it. It seemed an endless account of the hanging process. However I persevered and I am glad I did for without the frequent references the story would have become yet another of those pulp law programs as seen on TV screens nowadays. The direction the tale took and the various twists, turns, and machinations therein all took around the same time as the trial I would think. But then seldom have I read such a book as to put almost every waking moment into reading and completing it. And the processes described herein are all well researched and factual which adds to the realism felt when reading the book. A book all should read especially if one has any thoughts either positive or negative on the death penalty. Five big, big stars!