Jiangxi retrials Zhang Yuhuan case 26 years ago, prosecutors appearing in court: suggest changing acquittal

　　On the morning of July 9, the Jiangxi Provincial High People's Court opened the court to reexamine the case of Zhang Yuhuan's intentional murder. At the court, the prosecutor of the Jiangxi Provincial People's Procuratorate issued a court opinion and recommended that Zhang Yuhuan be acquitted.

　　The prosecutor who appeared in court said that the physical evidence determined by the original trial was insufficient to prove that the sack was a corpse throwing tool. The sack salvaged by the witness in this case, Zhang Pengfei, and four others were found beside the reservoir where the body was found and the sacks extracted from Zhang Yuhuan’s house were patched. The methods are not the same; and the sack fiber on Zhang Yuhuan’s clothes is not exclusive; in addition, he can not prove hemp rope to commit crimes. Only Zhang Yuhuan’s second guilty confession mentions this, and none of the three physical evidences can be directly It was confirmed that Zhang Yuhuan had committed a criminal act, so there was no objective evidence in this case. However, Zhang Yuhuan's two guilty confessions are inconsistent, and there are significant differences in the important places such as the location, means, and time of corpse throwing, and the authenticity is doubtful. The original judgment was only convicted with a guilty confession. In summary, it is recommended that the court change the acquittal.

　　In 1993, Zhang Yuhuan was accused of killing two children and later sentenced to death. For many years, Zhang Yuhuan insisted on complaining and denied killing. Surging News noted that Zhang Yuhuan was detained for a total of more than 9,700 days, more than 26 years.

　【Case review】

　　Surging News previously reported that on October 24, 1993, Zhang Lei and Zhang Xiang, boys in Zhangjia Village, Huangling Township, Jinxian County, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, were murdered. Three days later, neighbor Zhang Yuhuan was convicted by the police. After being taken away on November 3 and November 4, 1993, Zhang Yuhuan made the only two guilty statements in the whole case.

　　When the Nanchang Intermediate Court first tried the case, Zhang Yuhuan argued that he was wronged, saying that the Public Security Bureau forced him to confess. On January 26, 1995, the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court found in the first instance that Zhang Yuhuan killed two boys from the neighbor's house and threw the corpse into the reservoir by means of card, rope and stick, committing the crime of intentional homicide. In the judgment, the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court held that the case was "clear basic facts and sufficient basic evidence" and the crime was serious, but according to the specific circumstances of the case, Zhang Yuhuan was sentenced to death and suspended for two years. It is worth mentioning that no lawyer defended Zhang Yuhuan in this trial.

　　Because of dissatisfaction with the verdict, Zhang Yuhuan appealed. On March 30, 1995, the Jiangxi High Court ruled that the original verdict should be revoked and sent back for retrial on the grounds of unclear facts and insufficient evidence.

　　Since then, the case has been stuck for several years.

　　After a lapse of six and a half years, on November 7, 2001, the Nanchang Intermediate People’s Court retrial decision again determined that the case was “clear basic facts and sufficient basic evidence”, and “based on the specific circumstances of the case”, rendered the same result as the original first trial decision. .

　　Zhang Yuhuan was still dissatisfied and appealed again. On November 28, 2001, the Higher People's Court of Jiangxi Province made a final judgment: the appeal was dismissed and the original judgment was upheld. The ruling showed that the Jiangxi High Court believed that the basic facts of the case were clear, and decided not to go to trial, and the ruling did not show that there was a lawyer defending Zhang Yuhuan.

　　After jail, Zhang Yuhuan still pleaded not guilty. His eldest brother Zhang Minqiang told Peng Mei News that Zhang Yuhuan wrote a complaint letter every week in prison, telling the judiciary at all levels of grievances, and finally sent thousands of letters successfully. Outside the high wall, the Zhang family also continued to complain.

　　Zhang Yuhuan’s appealing attorney summed up many doubts in the case after reviewing the file materials: the lack of identification of the physical evidence, it was impossible to directly prove that Zhang Yuhuan committed the crime, and it was impossible to rule out other possibilities and form a closed loop of evidence; the only two cases in the case There are many discrepancies between the guilty confessions; there is no lawyer defending Zhang Yuhuan at the final trial of the Jiangxi High Court, and the procedure is suspected of being illegal.

　　Wang Fei pointed out that in accordance with Article 34, paragraph 3 of the Criminal Procedure Law that came into effect at the time of the final trial in 1997, if the defendant may be sentenced to death without entrusting a defender, the people’s court shall designate a lawyer who undertakes legal aid obligations as It provided defense. "The death penalty case was not defended by a lawyer, which was a major procedural violation. In addition, Zhang Yuhuan was found to have killed two children but was sentenced to death without delay. The death sentence was obviously left with room."

　　After years of complaints, on March 1, 2019, the Jiangxi High Court made a retrial decision on the Zhang Yuhuan case. The retrial decision showed that the Jiangxi High Court believed that Zhang Yuhuan’s grounds for the complaint met the conditions for a retrial and decided to form a collegiate panel for the retrial.

　　Surging News Reporter Zhuang An