Holiday reading

[Bagpuss]

Welcome to Richard and Judy's book club

[IR35 Avoider]

My sister gave me an autographed copy of a book called "In A Different Time" by Peter Harris, her boss. It covers roughly a three year period in the late 1980's and early 1990's when he was defense lawyer for four ANC members accused (among other things) of various acts of espionage, murder and treason. Also, shortly after the trial, hard evidence (in the form of confessions) emerged for the first time to prove the police had been murdering enemies of Apartheid during the 80's, and he was involved in taking statements from them and finding corroborating evidence to prove their confessions weren't fabrications, and presenting that evidence to a government commission of enquiry.

He has a difficult challenge with the kinds of cases he defends, politically-motivated crime. In the first few pages he points out that like most defense lawyers, he's hampered by the fact that his clients are usually guilty. Secondly, the prosecution will have ample evidence to convict them, as they are not charged or allowed access to a lawyer until they have led the police to such evidence, something that is facilitated by holding them in solitary confinement for several months and torturing them. Lastly, unlike defendents in non-political cases, his clients don't want to deny what they've done. They are proud of their accomplishments and want the world to know. In the particular case he covers in the book, the murder and treason charges carry the death penalty, and even if he can't avoid a guilty verdict, he wants to keep his clients alive as long as possible, in the hope that something will turn up.

With an opening like that, and given that a story-teller can't control how a true story will pan, you might think there would be no dramatic tension, but there is. There are unexpected twists in the trial. Through-out the book he cuts away from the main story to a sub-plot revealing how police prepare a bomb to assasinate a target, you only find out what happens in the last few paragraphs. Well worth reading.