Editor's note: Erroneous judgments have been discovered repeatedly in the past few years. Though it is a relief to see mishandled cases being addressed, we can't help but think why they happened in the first place.

Here is a retrospective of some historical cases. As different as the tragedies are, the cause is more or less the same.

In October, President Xi Jinping warned of serious problems in China's legal system and pledged to end miscarriages of justice at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a key political meeting advancing the rule of law.

As judicial reforms are under way, more efforts are expected to be exerted to unearth unfair trials, and more importantly, to eradicate the roots of injustice.

Hugjiltu, 18, was convicted of the rape and murder of a woman in Hohhot, the capital of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in April 1996. He was executed 62 days after the woman was killed, despite doubts over the evidence.In 2005, another man admitted that he was the woman's murderer, but it wasn't until November 20, 2014 that the regional high people's court decided to retry the case.[Photo/IC]

Hugjiltu's case was fast-tracked through the courts. According to a report from Beijing News.com, his family said they did not receive any document from the court before the first trial. The procedure goes against what is stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Law, but was "justified" at the time. In 1996, the authorities launched a crackdown on violent crime. During the crackdown the time limit of legal documents that should have been sent to the family members of the suspects was relaxed.

Read more about Hugjiltu