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Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

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Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

China to formulate judicial exclusionary rule of illegal evidence

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Nie Shubin
Nie Shubin
China will formulate and issue a judicial interpretation on the throwing out of illegally-obtained evidence.

At a meeting attended by the heads of higher people's courts nationwide on Saturday, courts were asked to implement policies regarding the death penalty.

They were told to learn from the case of Nie Shubin, an innocent man who was wrongfully executed over 20 years ago.

Stricter punishments will be given to crimes of murder, robbery, kidnapping, women trafficking and telecom fraud, according to the meeting.

Violations in the securities market will also be handled according to law, and more should be done to educate minors involved in school bullying, it was stressed at the meeting.

The courts were also called to intensify the analysis and study of the root causes of corruption and loopholes in the supervision system to improve anti-corruption systems.

Chinese courts at all levels received over 23 million cases in 2016 and concluded the trial or enforcement of about 19.8 million cases, statistics revealed at the meeting showed.

Source: ecns.cn, January 15, 2017

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