Rapist and murderer exonerated in China – 21 years after he was executed
CHINA'S highest legal body today exonerated a 21-year-old executed in 1995 following a conviction of rape and murder, saying the evidence against him had been insufficient.
The Chinese Supreme People's Court build
Nie Shubin was found guilty 21 years ago of raping and killing a woman in the city of Shijiazhuang in China's northern province of Hebei.
He was executed on April. 27, 1995 after a provincial court upheld the decision, in an appeal against his conviction by a city court.
Following a second re-examination of the case begun in June, however, the Supreme People's Court today concluded, “The facts are unclear, the evidence is insufficient”, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The lawyer of the family of Nie Shubin
Much of the evidence used against Nie was suspect, the court ruled, adding that there were doubts about the legitimacy of his confession.
Videos of Nie's family bursting into tears at the news of Friday's verdict were shared thousands of times on popular microblog Weibo, China's equivalent of social network Twitter.
The original decision had been thrown into doubt in 2005, when another man, Wang Shujin, confessed to the murder and rape, provoking wide discussion of Nie's case and an outpouring of support for his bereft parents.
Nie Shubin's mother leaving the court
Following an appeal by the parents in 2007, legal authorities decided there was enough doubt to justify a re-examination by the Supreme People's Procurate.
The facts are unclear, the evidence is insufficient
Wrongful executions have often stirred public outrage in China, particularly over confessions extracted under torture, but capital punishment itself has wide support.
In 2014, a court posthumously acquitted an ethnic Mongol, Huugjilt, who had been executed for raping and killing a woman in a public restroom, a miscarriage of justice that sparked widespread anger.
The court concluded that the evidence was not sufficient
Huugjilt, like many ethnic Mongols, went by a single name.
Another man was later sentenced to death for the crime.
China guards as a state secret the number of people it executes annually, but campaigners against the death penalty say it is used more extensively than elsewhere.