3 South Africans Guilty in Slaying of Amy Biehl

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Three young men were convicted of murder Tuesday for the vicious stoning and stabbing death of California exchange student Amy Biehl in a black township in August, 1993, and the prosecutor immediately asked for the death penalty.

A gallery packed with the defendants’ friends and supporters erupted in loud gasps and angry whispers as prosecutor Nollie Niehaus told Supreme Court Judge Gerald Friedman that he should “only consider the death sentence” for what he called a “racially motivated crime, not a politically motivated crime.”

But Niehaus said after court closed that he expects Friedman to imprison the three instead when he passes sentence today. South Africa has not carried out executions for three years, and the new democratic government has said capital punishment will be banned.

In a telephone interview from the family home in Newport Beach, Biehl’s mother, Linda, said she “would have been crushed” if the three had not been convicted in the arduous 11-month trial.

“Because I know (they) weren’t innocent,” she said. “So I think I felt relief.”

Biehl said she “did not see remorse” in the defendants’ faces when she last visited the court in late August. But she added that her 26-year-old daughter had opposed the death penalty and would not want her to feel “bitterness and anger” toward her attackers.

“I have great compassion,” she said. “I think it’s a tragedy for their families.”

Melanie Jacobs, who was Biehl’s roommate and closest friend during her 10 months of work as a Fulbright scholar here, was less charitable.

“Frankly, I hope they rot in jail,” Jacobs said outside the court, moments after Friedman finished reading his 190-page verdict. “If Amy knew what I was thinking, she’d be shaking her finger at me. She didn’t believe in revenge. But I feel a little stronger than that.”

Mongezi Manquina, 22, Mzikhona Nofemela, 19, and Vusumzi Ntamo, 21, were convicted of chasing Biehl from her car and stabbing, kicking and beating her to death after she inadvertently drove down a road filled with armed youths chanting anti-white slogans in Guguletu township on Aug. 25, 1993.

The pitiless killing by a bloodthirsty mob horrified most South Africans and focused an international spotlight on the violence ravaging townships as the bitterly divided nation struggled to cast off apartheid and hold its first free elections.

The defense lawyer, Justice Poswa, said in an interview that he will appeal for reversal of the verdict and will ask for a full pardon under legislation now pending in Parliament to grant amnesty for any political crimes committed before Dec. 6 last year.

“I think they qualify for indemnity,” Poswa said. “This was a political act.”

Poswa pleaded for a suspended sentence for the three, whom he repeatedly referred to as “children.” He said they came from poor families and were deprived of proper schooling and housing. “It’s no fault of theirs that this is so,” Poswa said.

Citing Biehl’s work with a legal rights group in the impoverished township, Poswa added, “The parents of Miss Biehl should be the first to understand the living conditions of the accused. . . . The problems of the accused are very much the kind of problems that Miss Biehl came here to help.”

Poswa also argued that the racist slogans and epithets the mob chanted, especially “Kill the settler” and “One settler, one bullet,” came from black political leaders who were subsequently elected to Parliament and other positions of power in the new post-apartheid government.

“They are unfortunate victims of a political situation,” he said of the defendants, who were all active members of the radical Pan Africanist Student Organization. “They are misguided children.”

The three fidgeted and frowned but showed little emotion during the two-day reading of the verdict, which was painstakingly translated for them into the Xhosa language.

Nofemela, who was free on bail during the trial, glared at and resisted bailiffs who tried to lead him to cells in the basement after the day in court was over. His girlfriend, who attended most of the trial, burst into tears as he was taken away.

“I know he didn’t do it,” she said emotionally later, giving her name only as Nopinki. “He did nothing. Maybe the ones who did it got away and are afraid to talk.”

The state case nearly collapsed on opening day last November. Two key witnesses said they were too afraid to testify, and the prosecutor was forced to drop charges against three other defendants. As often happens here, police had obtained no physical evidence that could be used in court.

That left only confessions. But the defense quickly moved to disallow any incriminating statements, saying police had assaulted and intimidated the three youths after they were arrested.

After a lengthy “trial within a trial,” the judge ultimately agreed to admit statements from Nofemela and Ntamo. Nofemela had said he only stoned Biehl’s car, but Ntamo had confessed to hitting Biehl three times in the head with bricks as she lay bleeding on the ground.

That was enough to convict him, the judge said Tuesday. “The court finds beyond reasonable doubt that he committed the acts that he admits he did.”

The case against the other two defendants was far shakier until three surprise eyewitnesses from Guguletu appeared for the prosecution in the final weeks of the trial. To protect them from retribution, they were identified in court only as Miss A, Miss B and Miss C.

The judge said in his verdict that their riveting, often tearful testimony was crucial to convicting Manquina and Nofemela. “There is no reasonable possibility of there being a mistake in the identification,” he said.

Linda Biehl praised the three eyewitnesses for coming forward, saying they represented South Africa’s new spirit of reconciliation. “We hope they will be free and safe in the township, and the township of Guguletu will sort of settle down and somehow pull together from all this,” she added.