Society

Court to check lenient murder ruling

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-07-06 06:22

KUNMING - The Provincial Higher People's Court of Yunnan province said on Tuesday it would double-check the facts of a murder case, in which the culprit killed two people before he was sentenced to death with a two year reprieve.

"The court will conduct further studies into facts of the case, and then publicize the result," said Tian Chengyou, spokesman with the court.

The announcement was made following a cyber frenzy, as netizens called for a harsher punishment to be given to Li Changkui, a farmer who raped a 18-year-old girl, before killing her and her three-year-old brother in Yingge village of Qiaojia county, Zhaotong city.

The court heard that Li, 29, raped Wang Jiafei on May 16, 2009 and killed her by beating her head with a hoe. Then he killed her brother Wang Jiahong.

Li surrendered himself four days later, according to the judgement of the higher court.

The Intermediate People's Court in Zhaotong sentenced Li to death on July 15 last year, but Li appealed.

The higher court, considering that Li surrendered himself and paid compensation to the victims' family, gave him a two-year reprieve.

Dissatisfied with the result, the victims' elder brother Wang Jiachong posted online a photo of a letter with red finger prints from his fellow villagers, who together asked for a more severe punishment for Li.

Chen Lijin, mother of Jiafei and Jiahong, said officials with the higher court agreed to meet them in mid-July.

Wang Jiachong believed that the killing was out of revenge. "Li proposed to marry my sister, but Jiafei refused," he said.

Two days before the tragedy, the families of Li and Wang had a dispute, which was also the start of Li Changkui's quarrel with Wang Jiafei on May 16.

Wang rejected the claim of Li's self-surrender and compensation to his family.

"After he killed my brother and sister, he ran away, begging," he said. "The police issued a warrant for his arrest. He had nowhere to hide and went to police in the neighboring Sichuan province."

A document from the Yingge village committee showed that Li Changkui's father admitted that his son killed Jiafei and Jiahong, but didn't pay compensation. The village officials ordered them to sell their bricks and sheep. The money they gained, 21,835.5 yuan, was handed to victims' family.

Wang Jiachong said that many villagers were angered at the ruling. More than 200 people wrote a letter with their signatures, protesting.

"He was not sentenced to death. Does it mean that anyone can kill someone and then surrender himself to avoid severe punishment?" said 66-year-old Yang Zhengfu, Wang's fellow villager.

Many netizens believed the result was unacceptable as well. On the search engine Baidu.com, an online chat room named "Li Changkui" was opened. From Sunday, it had attracted 4,500 comments.

"I am beginning to be afraid," said a netizen named Wodetaohao. "If a man who raped a girl and killed two people isn't put to death, I don't know who can guarantee my safety."

Another named yooyeh said, "Li's crime was premeditated. The innocent boy was just three. Even Yao Jiaxin was not as cruel as him."

Yao Jiaxin, a university student who stabbed a young mother to death to cover up him running into her with a car, was executed in June.

Liu Ning, director of the Yixing Law Firm and member of the Beijing People's Consultative Conference, wrote in his micro blog that a basic condition for reprieve was to gain the forgiveness from family of the victim. "Apparently, this requirement was not met."

"This case didn't gain so much concern as the case of Yao Jiaxin, but the standard to sentence should be the same," said Yang Tao, a columnist.

Wang Lin, an associated professor with the law school of the Hainan University, said real justice could stand the test of public opinion.

"In a way, the media and public act as monitors for justice," he said.

Tian Chengyou, spokesman with the Yunnan Provincial Higher People's Court, believed that concern of the public showed people's hope for justice.

"We will treat the public opinions cautiously and handle the case according to regulations," he said.

According to Chen Chang, head of the Intermediate People's Court in Zhaotong, there are two ways for the sentence to be changed: the higher court could hold a new hearing for the case, or the provincial procuratorate could, through the Supreme People's Procuratorate, appeal the judgement, and take it to the Supreme People's Court.