On 19 August 2002, Amina Lawal of Kurami village in northern Nigeria’s Katsina State, a divorcee of 30 years of age, lost the appeal of her sentence of death by stoning for extramarital sexual intercourse, which had been imposed by a shari a court in the town of Bakori in March of the same year on the strength of a pregnancy out of wedlock. The upper shari a court that handled the appeal did not accept Lawal’s withdrawal of her initial confession and confirmed the verdict of first instance
