Amy Biehl

Amy Elizabeth Biehl (April 26, 1967 – August 25, 1993) was a white American graduate of Stanford University and an Anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa who was murdered by black Cape Town residents while a black mob shouted anti-white slurs. The four men convicted of her murder were released as part of the Truth and Reconciliation process.

Death and trial

Biehl was a student at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town as a scholar in the Fulbright Program.

As she drove a friend home to the township of Gugulethu, outside Cape Town, on August 25, 1993, a black mob pulled her from the car and stabbed and stoned her to death. The attack on the car driven by Amy Biehl was one of many incidents of general lawlessness on the NY1 road that afternoon. Bands of toyi-toying black youths threw stones at delivery vehicles and cars driven by white people. One delivery vehicle was toppled over and set alight and only the arrival of the police prevented more damage. There was evidence that some of the possessions of Amy Biehl and the passengers in her car were stolen. According to Rex van Schalkwyk, in his 1998 book One Miracle is Not Enough: "Supporters of the three men accused of murdering [her] … burst out laughing in the public gallery of the Supreme Court today when a witness told how the battered woman groaned in pain." (pp. 188–89.) Four people were convicted of killing her. In 1998, all were pardoned by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission when they stated that their actions had been politically motivated.