Robert Turrell presents a novel approach to the study of capital punishment in 20th-century South Africa. White Mercy focuses on official acts of mercy rather than on miscarriages of justice. Turrell bases his absorbing narrative on a thorough investigation of government statistics, court testimony, and judges' reports. He shows that racism and sexism profoundly influenced death-penalty cases, but not in equal ways. Africans, whom white rulers considered the weaker race, and women, whom men called the weaker sex, entered a legal realm that both promoted preordained cultural...