In 2010 a High Court in India found Shabnam and Saleem guilty of conspiring and murdering seven of Shabnam’s family members. They are both currently in death row. If executed, Shabnam will be the first woman to be so killed in independent India. In the decade she’s spent in prison, Shabnam learnt to knit, stitch, and embroider textiles as clothing and bags. Her lawyers documented and presented images of these objects as evidence of reform and a promise of rehabilitation. I am interested in taking the materiality of these objects seriously, and treat them as aesthetic objects. What happens when these photographs enter a legal plea, as evidence of reformation, and a prayer for the commutation of sentence?
