Shepherds and Butchers Page #2

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Good night.

And you were going to say,

a senior advocate

who hasn't handled

a murder case in 15 years?

I don't know

what you said

to him last time,

but he was grouchy

when he came home.

More than usual?

I'm the one who has

to live with him, John.

Here, take that.

Seems to me he's

guilty of murder

and you're trying to turn it

into a political case.

Well, every case involving

the death sentence

is a political case.

Could've just been road rage,

you ever think of that?

He shot seven people 13 times.

A very bad case of road rage.

The only thing I've

accomplished so far

is to keep our

strategy a secret,

but that ends when

the defense starts.

Well,

see if this is of any use.

What is it?

It's a table of drops.

How much do you weigh?

About 70 kilos.

So, you divide 840 foot-pounds

by the weight of the prisoner,

in this case 70,

which means that you,

John weber,

would need five feet,

three inches of rope

for a nice,

clean break.

He was very good

at it, apparently.

They relied on him,

calculating the drops.

And how do you know this?

You don't wanna ask.

What else, Pierre?

What struck me is

that these warders,

they get to know the men

that they have to hang.

They're their caretakers,

then they haul them out,

string them up.

And this struck you, why?

In a war,

you don't see

the enemy as people.

You're shooting at uniforms,

not men.

The only thing worse

than killing a stranger

is killing someone you know.

Strangers are hard enough.

You have to go

through all of these?

Yes, these 32 men

who were hanged in

the last two weeks

Leon was there.

And what are we

looking for exactly?

It might be useful

to find out something

about the men he hanged

in the days

before the shooting.

He developed a very

close relationship

with these men.

How would you know that?

My brother-in-law has contacts

in the prison system.

He's a warder?

Intelligence. Special forces.

He spent three years

fighting in Angola.

What's that got to do

with anything, John?

Well, for one thing,

it means he knows

first-hand what

killing does to a person.

I'm sorry,

are we assembling evidence

to support your

political pre-conception

about capital punishment,

or are we trying to discover

the extenuating circumstances

that might save Leon

from a death sentence?

Something must have happened

to labuschagne toward the end.

These men all had

reasons for killing.

He must've had a reason.

We need to find

out what it is.

So, we're down to

wild hunches, then.

Look,

i understand that a defense

based on complete

mental breakdown

doesn't succeed very often.

But it's all we've

got at this stage.

Unless you have a better idea.

Do you have a better idea?

No.

Um...

If it pleases my lord

and my lord's

learned assessors.

Yes, yes, carry on.

This is an extraordinary case

in which the evidence

for the prosecution

is undisputed

and the case for

the prosecution is,

in a way, also

the case for the defense.

On a murder charge,

the prosecution has to prove

that the act was

both unlawful and intentional.

We intend to prove

that there was no act

to which the law attaches

legal consequences.

Are you

suggesting there was no act

when we have seven bodies?

My lord is

entitled to be skeptical.

The prosecution

has been at pains

to explain what has happened.

We intend to explain

why these events happened

and whether the accused

can be held

criminally responsible.

Well,

you'd better explain

very carefully

what the defense is,

as I'm at

a loss to understand.

How can you say

there was no act

when you've admitted that

the accused killed

the seven deceased?

With respect,

my lord, the events

at the quarry

are not in dispute,

but the brutality,

the scale of the events,

seven fit young men

killed by a single individual

calls for closer scrutiny.

The prosecution has adduced

no evidence of a motive,

and there appears to be none.

We intend to look

at the accused's

working conditions

on death row,

inside maximum

security prison,

and the events

that took place there

prior to

the incidents at the quarry

in order to find

the reason for his actions.

Actions we believe

were unconscious

and triggered by

his traumatic

experiences as a warder.

So,

the defense is asserting

that the accused's

working conditions

triggered these actions,

that they were involuntary,

and therefore not

punishable by law.

Correct, my lord.

This raises

matters of state security, Mr.

weber.

If I allow this,

i don't want any names used.

Not of officials or inmates.

Not one.

Listen, labuschagne,

when you're on the stand,

you'll talk,

you'll do as you're told,

or you'll soon find yourself

back in your gallows

with a noose

around your own neck.

Mr. labuschagne,

please tell

the court how old you were

when you first

joined the prison service.

And why did you join?

If you join

the police or prisons,

you don't have

to go to the army.

Why did you wish to

avoid the military?

They sent you to

Angola to fight.

Were you aware

that the warders

at maximum security prison

performed gallows duties?

No.

So, you had no idea

what your duties would be

when you first

arrived at maximum.

No.

Could you tell the court

about your first day there?

I was briefed on

the importance of secrecy.

I was told not

to speak to anyone

about anything to

do with the work

we were doing

inside the prison.

And if I did,

I'd be disciplined.

My lord,

is this detail necessary?

We are here to shed light

on what occurred

on magazine hill,

not to make public

the internal functions

of a government institution

whose activities

might be confidential,

perhaps even secret.

My lord, the time

the accused spent

working on death row

is central to

the defense's case

regarding his state of mind

that day on magazine hill.

We intend to lead

detailed testimony

about

the accused's state of mind,

in particular,

his circumstances at work.

I'll allow it, Mr.

weber, provisionally.

Continue, please.

What did you

experience on your first day

at maximum, Mr. labuschagne?

I was to accompany

the warrant officer

to see seven men on the rope.

"On the rope?"

It's what we

say for any prisoner

under the death sentence.

These seven were

going up the next day

to the gallows.

Will you please tell the court

what happened

when you went

to see these men?

The warrant officer said

I'd have to pick one

as I'd have to

escort one of the men

to be hanged the next day.

So, you were told

you were gonna help

hang one of these

men the very next day.

Sir, I'd rather you

picked one for me, sir.

The new boy must pick one.

That's how it works.

Hmm?

Makhandla.

Pick makhandla.

What's his name?

What's his name?

Makhandla!

Did the warrant

officer tell you

what you were to

do the next day

as an escort at a hanging?

Just said to learn by

following and watching others.

That was your first day?

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