Isabel Buchanan on Trials on Death Row in Pakistan

As a 23-year-old lawyer, Isabel Buchanan travelled to Lahore to contribute to overturning death sentence cases, many which seemed based upon either unjust, unsafe or terrifyingly random convictions. In her brave and troubling debut Trials on Death Row, she succeeds fully in detailing horrific injustices with balance and empathy, recounting the histories of cases which will intrigue and horrify. This masterful blending of memoir and reportage is an important, must-read work.

Buchanan, in an adopted country she clearly loves, bears witness to the stories of those convicted to die on the gallows for a variety of crimes - both actions and words - and the colleaugues in Pakistan fighting to free them from this fate. She talks to The Skinny here about challenges and inspriations.

The Skinny: Adapting to a different culture and language is difficult enough. You also had a new and labyrinthine legal system to contend with. Can you describe how you found your feet?

Isabel Buchanan: I was at sea most of the time! I went to Pakistan as a volunteer, to learn from local death penalty lawyers and human rights activists whose hard work in difficult circumstances I deeply admired. I was fortunate in that I lived with those lawyers’ families, spent my weekends with them and their kids, lost late nights eating takeout and working on appeals with them, and got to see from the inside how they went about their work.

The book succeeds in clearly describing a justice system very different to our own. What elements most stood out to you?

Yes, there are many differences.  From the lack of a jury in criminal trials, to advocates’ legal dress, to the incorporation of Sharia, to the filing systems of the High Court.  But, actually, what I most loved about working in Pakistan’s legal system was spotting its similarities to our own.  Whole swathes of Pakistan’s laws were written by British legal theorists working in India in the nineteenth century. 

Many of Pakistan’s advocates and judges have studied law in the UK and been called to the Bar at one of London’s four Inns of Court.  A great deal of Pakistan’s laws and legal submissions are drafted in English. I quickly learned that the British and Pakistani legal systems have a rich and complex shared history – and I took great pleasure in exploring that.

When did the idea for adapting your experiences into a book occur?

The book was a total accident. I planned to return to Pakistan in 2013, but my visas were repeatedly refused. I was devastated. And I was stuck in London – with nothing to do and nowhere to live. I moved between the sofas and spare rooms of friends, and spent my days in cafes and the British Library. I began to write about the work and people that I missed, as a way to stay connected I suppose. Those writings gradually became this book.

How might these experiences shape your beliefs personally and professionally going forward?

Humility was the strongest emotion provoked by my experiences in Pakistan. Being surrounded by brave, principled, people doing tough, admirable work truly humbled me. I hope I never lose that sense of perspective. 

Who are the writers that have most influenced your work?

I love American narrative non-fiction. Joan Didion especially, whose books I read over and over in order to learn how to write.  I also drew from Truman Capote and Normal Mailer, the grandfathers of the genre and masters of criminal story telling.  I love the way Janet Malcolm analyses a trial, and the way Katherine Boo evoked life in the slums of Mumbai in her book Behind the Beautiful Forevers.  And I’m a nature writing devotee – a sucker for the lyrical prose and careful observation of writers such as Barry Lopez, Helen MacDonald and Nan Shepherd.   

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Trials on Death Row in Pakistan is out now, published by Vintage, RRP £16.99