2 S. African Whites to Die for Killing Black Woman

Two white men who raped a black woman, locked her in the trunk of a car, set it ablaze and ignored her dying screams were sentenced to death today. Relatives of the men screamed and wept hysterically as the judge passed the sentence.

The sentence handed down by Klerksdorp Circuit Court Justice P. J. Schabort in the murder of Ginny Goitsione, 22, is believed the first time whites in South Africa have been sentenced to hang for killing a black.

“I don’t know of any other cases where a white was sentenced to death for killing a black person,” University of Witwatersrand Law Prof. John Dugard said. “At best, it’s very unusual.”

Last year 88 blacks, 24 people of mixed racial ancestry and one Asian were hanged while two whites went to the gallows at Pretoria Central Prison, where executions are carried out, according to Justice Minister Hendrik J. Coetsee.

Schabort dismissed the claims of the defendants, Schalk Burger, 19, and George Scheepers, 21, that they were drunk, which under South Africa’s version of Roman-Dutch law is an extenuating circumstance that can be employed as a defense.

Apartheid foes have long criticized what they say is a sharp disparity in sentences for crimes by whites against blacks compared with those meted out to blacks who attack or kill whites.

In one recent case, a white Pretoria man boasted to his girlfriend he would kill the next black he came across to celebrate his 20th birthday, and then killed a man.

He was sentenced to 1,200 hours in prison, to be served over six months.