Greenland wrote the judgement in which the two assessors over-ruled Pitman on this issue. It was the first time in the history of the country that assessors over-ruled a judge. The assessors found that Tekere presented with a personality and mindset which was completely consistent with an unreasonable but genuinely held belief that he was acting in the interest of state security with the confrontation between one of his men and the farmer, in which the latter was killed, an unfortunate consequence of the security sweep which Tekere genuinely believed needed to be conducted.