Death Penalty News

Nie Shubin The mother of a 20-year-old man who was wrongly executed for rape and murder more than two decades ago will receive about 2.7 million yuan (US$391,000 or HK$3.04 million) in compensation, including a record 1.3 million yuan for emotional damages, local media reported. The amount is far less than the 13.9 million yuan demanded by the family of Nie Shubin. He was taken into custody shortly after police found the body of Kang ­Juhua in Shijiazhuang in Hebei province in 1994. Nie confessed during police questioning and was tried and executed the next year, at the age of 21. In December, the Supreme People’s Court overturned the verdict, citing a lack of evidence and questions over the authenticity of his confession. Nie’s mother, Zhang Huanzhi, said she would not appeal against the compensation award handed down by the province’s highest court, according to Shanghai-based online news outlet ­Thepaper.cn. The case has been widely considered one of the mainl...

Nie Shubin was killed by firing squad in 1995 at the age of 20 after being found guilty of killing a woman in Shijiazhuang, in Hebei province. A Chinese man has had his conviction for rape and murder overturned, 21 years after he was executed. Nie Shubin was killed by firing squad in 1995 at the age of 20 after being found guilty of killing a woman in Shijiazhuang, in Hebei province. The supreme court ruled that the facts used in Mr Nie's trial were "unclear and the evidence insufficient". Mr Nie's family, who have been campaigning for two decades to clear his name, have thanked his supporters. Eleven years ago another man also said he had carried out the crime but the claim was rejected. Chinese courts have a conviction rate of more than 99%. The official number of executions are a state secret, but is believed to be in the thousands every year. Rights groups allege that confessions used in court are forced or extracted under tortur...

Nie Shubin A court in the eastern province of Shandong will review a controversial 1994 rape and murder case that saw a man executed, only for another to later confess to the crime. Nie Shubin was 21 in 1995 when found guilty of the rape and murder of a woman in Hebei's capital, Shijiazhuang, and executed. In 2005, another man named Wang Shujin confessed to the attack. Wang, 48, was apprehended by police in 2005 for three unconnected rape and murder cases, and confessed to a rape and murder with similar facts to Nie's case. Hebei Higher People's Court approved the death penalty for Nie in 1995, rejected Wang's request for a retrial in 2013 and still holds that Nie was guilty. Last December the Supreme People's Court ordered the case be moved out of the province and reviewed in Shandong. Five judges from Shandong higher court have reviewed Nie's case and the attorneys acting for Nie have seen the case files. In March, the attorneys claimed to...

In a single year, it executed more people than the rest of the world combined. But exactly how many death row prisoners have been killed in China remains top secret. Amnesty International estimates at least 1000 people were executed by the Asian powerhouse in 2014 alone. In its Death Penalty 2014 report, the human rights group said it actually believed the real number of people being put to death in China each year was in the "thousands", conceding the true figure was impossible to determine. And with more than 50 offences punishable by death and a startling 99 per cent conviction rate, it is perhaps the one country in the world where you don't want to be accused of committing a crime. At least one Australian resident, New Zealand-born Peter Gardiner, is facing the prospect of a Chinese firing squad after being accused of smuggling ice into the country with his girfriend, Sydney woman Kalynda Davis, who has since been returned to Australia. The ...

Huugjilt BEIJING (Reuters) - A court in China sentenced a man to death on Monday for crimes including the murder and rape of a woman in 1996 which another person was wrongly executed for before being exonerated last year, state media reported. Zhao Zhihong, 42, was detained in 2005 and confessed to a series of rapes and murders, including one in a public toilet in Inner Mongolian capital Hohhot in 1996 that was blamed on Huugjilt, then aged 18 . Huugjilt, who like many Chinese Mongols used just a single name, was later executed. A court in December overturned his conviction and awarded his parents - who attended Zhao's verdict hearing - compensation. The court additionally ordered Zhao to pay 102,768 yuan ($16,445) in compensation to his victims. China has embarked on legal reforms, including reducing the use of the death penalty, as public discontent mounts over wrongful punishment. While wrongful executions have often stirred outrage, capital punishme...

Huugjilt was only 18 at the time of his execution in 1996. (Xinhua) -- The Supreme People's Court (SPC) issued a protocol to facilitate the participation of defense lawyers when reviewing a death sentence. According to the document, if a defense lawyer requests a meeting with the judge to express the defendant's opinion about a death sentence, the judge should arrange the meeting promptly. The meeting can be held at the SPC office in Beijing or at a local court house when the judge is visiting the defendant. The content of the meeting will be logged into a transcript and it will be signed by the lawyer. If the condition allows, the meeting will be recorded or videotaped, according to the document. Defense lawyers are allowed to read and copy legal documents of the cases at the SPC office. The SPC verdict will be delivered to defense lawyers within five days after it is announced. The protocol is considered part of the SPC's efforts to protect d...

Huugjilt was wrongly convicted in 1996 of raping and killing a woman. He was executed in the same year. He was 18. Beijing: The parents of a Chinese teenager executed 18 years ago for the rape and murder of a woman he did not commit will get 2.05 million yuan (Dh1.2 million or $330,491) in compensation, a court and his father said on Wednesday. This month, a court exonerated Huugjilt , saying he was wrongly convicted in 1996 of raping and killing a woman in a public rest room. He was executed in the same year. He was 18. Huugjilt is the latest wrongfully convicted death-row inmate exonerated in the past year. In August, Nian Bin, a former death row prisoner, was freed after a court said there was insufficient evidence against him. These cases, which have sparked an outcry, have added to public discontent over wrongful punishment. They come as the government has embarked on legal reforms, including banning the use of torture to extract confessions. H...

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Huugjilt BEIJING — A Chinese police officer who oversaw the case of a teenager wrongfully convicted of murder and executed in 1996 has been arrested in a case that has caught national attention, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday. Feng Zhiming, now a deputy police chief in the northern city of Hohhot, was charged with torture to coerce confession, dereliction of duty and taking bribes, Xinhua said. His arrest on Wednesday came two days after the Inner Mongolia Higher People’s Court overturned the conviction of Huugjilt, who was 18 years old when he was sentenced to death and executed over the killing of a woman in a public toilet in Hohhot. The court cited a lack of evidence in clearing Huugjilt, who used only one name like many ethnic Mongolians. Although Chinese police have routinely used torture to extract confessions, especially in high-profile cases, this case has caused public outrage because it coincided with the Chinese government’s recently stated g...

Huugjilt was only 18 at the time of his execution in 1996. A Chinese court has found a man not guilty of the 1996 rape and murder of a woman after a retrial – more than 18 years after he was found guilty and executed. Inner Mongolia's High Court ruled today that Huugjilt, who was 18 at the time of his execution, was innocent of the crimes, and apologised to his weeping parents. Another man had admitted to the crimes in 2005. Xinhua, the state-run news agency, reported that Huugjilt had gone to try to help the victim after hearing someone cry out in a public toilet in Hohhot as he and his friend, Yan Feng, had walked past. Yan told Xinhua that they had found a woman's body inside the toilet, and Huugjilt had gone to report the crime to police - despite him urging his friend to stay silent. Zhao Jianping, deputy president of the high court, told Huugjilt’s tearful parents: “We learnt a heart-breaking lesson in this case; we are sorry.” He also presented ...

China's top court said it would study ways of further reducing the number of crimes punishable by death, in an effort to reform a segment of Chinese law widely criticised by international rights groups. Activists say China uses capital punishment more than any other country, raising public concern of irreversible miscarriages of justice. In October, the National People's Congress, China's parliament, began reviewing a policy to trim nine crimes from the list of offences subject to the death penalty. Those reforms have yet to be finalised. Hu Yunteng, a senior researcher at the Supreme People's Court, told a meeting of academics on Saturday that China would deepen death penalty reform. "[Officials] must thoroughly study how to reduce death penalty crimes, and progressively limit and reduce the scope of the use of the death penalty," the People's Court Daily on Sunday cited Hu as saying. The use of the death penalty must be "100 p...

Execution in China (file photo) A court in north China Thursday officially began reconsideration of a 1996 rape and murder case, which may have resulted in the conviction and execution of the wrong man. The presiding judge with Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court, Bobatu, issued a retrial notice to the parents of Huugjilt, found guilty of the rape and murder of a woman in a public toilet in the regional capital Hohhot April 9, 1996, Xinhua reported. Huugjilt, 18 at the time, was sentenced to death by Hohhot Intermediate People's Court in May 1996. His appeal was rejected, the death penalty was approved by the region's higher court and Huugjilt was executed June 10,1996. After his execution, another alleged serial rapist and killer, Zhao Zhihong, confessed to the murder when he was arrested in 2005 . Zhao allegedly raped and killed 10 women and girls between 1996 and 2005. He stood trial in late 2006 and no verdict has yet been issued. President of the ...