On June 12, 1964, a judge sentenced Nelson Mandela to life in prison.
Mandela was one of eight men accused of conspiracy and sabotage in the so-called Rivonia Trial, named after a suburb of Johannesburg where African National Congress leaders had hidden out in a farmhouse.
In an electrifying speech from the dock at the beginning of the defense case, Mandela addressed the court:
Passing sentence, Justice de Wet compared the convicted men’s crime to high treason but said that after careful consideration he had decided not to impose “the supreme penalty.”
