Sandra Smith ( – 2 June 1989) was a South African woman condemned to death by hanging in 1986 for robbery-homicide alongside her boyfriend, Yassiem Harris. She was the last known woman executed in the country. In November 1989, president

F W de Klerk Frederik Willem de Klerk (, , 18 March 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African politician who served as state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president from 1994 to 1996 in the democratic government. As South A ...

ordered a nationwide moratorium, stopping executions until further notice. In ''

S v Makwanyane ''S v Makwanyane and Another'' (CCT 3/94) was a landmark 1995 judgement of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. It established that capital punishment was inconsistent with the commitment to human rights expressed in the Interim Constitut ...

'' in 1995, the

Constitutional Court of South Africa The Constitutional Court of South Africa is a supreme court, supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa, and is the apex court in the South African judicial system, with general jurisdiction. The Court was fi ...

declared that capital punishment be abolished, being incompatible with the provisional constitution of 1993.

References

1965 births 1989 deaths 20th-century executions by South Africa South African female murderers South African people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by South Africa People executed by South Africa by hanging {{SouthAfrica-bio-stub Executed South African women People executed for murder