An Islamic court in Nigeria has begun hearing an appeal from a woman convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning under controversial Sharia, or Islamic, law.
Ms Amina Lawal, 30, sat cradling her baby daughter in the well of the Funtua Upper Sharia court in northern Nigeria, a bit part player in the ongoing drama surrounding Nigeria's adoption of a tough version of the Sharia law code.
Human rights lawyers have a tough fight ahead of them to have stoning declared unconstitutional but today the battle focused on the fate of one young woman, a divorcee sentenced to death for adultery.
"We will challenge the states' right to adopt laws imposing capital sentences but this will take time," said Ms Hauwa Ibrahim, spokeswoman for the Nigerian Bar Council, "Now we have to deal with this case.
"Once one of the sentences are carried out, they could spring up all over the place," she said, describing how teams of rights lawyers were struggling to keep up with developments across a vast swathe of often remote territory.
On Monday judges heard Amina's defence counsel outline what he said were a string of procedural abuses at her first trial that should see her sentence struck down. The case was adjourned until August 5.