The Paper Journalist Wei Jiaming
The much-watched Jiangxi Zhang Yuhuan intentional homicide case will be announced at the Fourth Trial Court of Jiangxi High Court at 4 pm today. Prior to this, on July 9th, the case was retrial publicly in Jiangxi High Court, and both the prosecution and the defense believed that the sentence should be changed.
Zhang Yuhuan’s brother, Zhang Minqiang, told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that in the more than 20 days of waiting for the verdict, he was like a big rock hanging in his heart, making it harder to face Zhang Binglian, his mother who was hoping for his son to return home in his hometown.
Zhang Minqiang said that the family has been running around for his younger brother’s case for more than 20 years, and finally waited until the day when the sentence was pronounced. All preparations have been made for Zhang Yuhuan to go home; if Zhang Yuhuan can be acquitted, the first thing is to let him return to his hometown and Mother reunited.
"Today is just fifteen, and the moon is particularly round in these two days. I am going to let my sister cook a pot of glutinous rice balls, and each family member will eat a few to please." Zhang Minqiang said.
Jiangxi Zhang Yuhuan’s intentional homicide case was retrial in Jiangxi Higher People’s Court on July 9. The Paper, News Reporter Wei Jiaming
Charged with killing two boys and received a suspended death sentence, there are only two guilty statements in the whole case
In June 2018, The Paper reported for the first time this suspicious case that occurred in 27 years.
On October 24, 1993, boys Zhang Zhenrong and Zhang Zhenwei in Zhangjia Village, Huangling Township, Jinxian County, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, were killed. Three days later, the neighbor Zhang Yuhuan was determined by the police as the suspect. After being taken away, on November 3 and November 4, 1993, Zhang Yuhuan made the only two confessions of guilt in the entire case. When the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court opened the trial for the first time, Zhang Yuhuan withdrew his confession in court, arguing that he was unjust, saying that the guilty confession was forced to confess by the Public Security Bureau.
On January 26, 1995, the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court found that Zhang Yuhuan was guilty of intentional homicide by killing two neighboring boys and throwing their bodies into the reservoir by means of handcards, ropes, and clubs. In the judgment, the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court held that the case had “clear basic facts and sufficient basic evidence” and the crime was serious. However, according to the specific circumstances of the case, Zhang Yuhuan was sentenced to death with a two-year suspension of execution. It is worth noting that there was no lawyer to defend Zhang Yuhuan in this trial.
Because of dissatisfaction with the verdict, Zhang Yuhuan appealed. On March 30, 1995, the Jiangxi Higher People's Court ruled to revoke the original judgment and remand it for retrial on the grounds of unclear facts and insufficient evidence.
Since then, the case has stalled for several years. After a lapse of six and a half years, on November 7, 2001, the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court re-trial judgement once again determined that the case was "clear in basic facts and sufficient in basic evidence", and "according to the specific circumstances of the case", it made a judgment with the same result as the original judgment of first instance. .
Zhang Yuhuan still refused to accept it and appealed again. On November 28, 2001, the Jiangxi Provincial Higher People's Court made a final ruling: reject the appeal and uphold the original judgment. The ruling showed that the Jiangxi Higher People's Court believed that the basic facts of the case were clear and decided not to open a court hearing, and the ruling did not show that a lawyer was defending Zhang Yuhuan.
After being imprisoned, Zhang Yuhuan still pleaded not guilty. His elder brother Zhang Minqiang told The Paper that Zhang Yuhuan would write a letter of complaint every week in prison, telling the judicial departments at all levels of his grievances, and finally successfully sent thousands of letters. Outside the high wall, the Zhang family also continued to appeal.
Zhang Yuhuan’s old house, the scene of the crime identified in the original judgment
After more than 20 years of complaint, we waited for a retrial, and the prosecutor who appeared in court suggested that the sentence be changed.
Zhang Yuhuan’s lawyers for appeals, Shang Manqing and Wang Fei, after consulting the case files, summed up multiple doubts in the case: the lack of identification of the material evidence makes it impossible to directly prove Zhang Yuhuan’s crime, other possibilities cannot be ruled out and a closed loop of evidence is formed; the entire case is only There was a big discrepancy between the two guilty confessions; there was no lawyer to defend Zhang Yuhuan in the final trial of Jiangxi High Court, which was suspected of procedural violations.
Wang Fei told The Paper that in accordance with the provisions of Article 34, paragraph 3, of the Criminal Procedure Law applied at the time of the final trial, if the defendant may be sentenced to death without entrusting a defender, the people’s court shall designate a legal aid obligation. The lawyer defended him. “The death penalty case did not have a lawyer to defend it, which is a major procedural violation. In addition, Zhang Yuhuan was found to have killed two children but was not sentenced to death immediately. The sentence of death with a reprieve is clearly left.”
After many years of appeals, on March 1, 2019, the Jiangxi Higher People's Court made a retrial decision on the Zhang Yuhuan case. The retrial decision document shows that the Jiangxi Higher People's Court believes that the reasons for the appeal submitted by Zhang Yuhuan meet the conditions for a retrial, and it has decided that the Jiangxi Higher People's Court will form a separate collegiate panel to conduct the retrial.
At 9 am on July 9, the Jiangxi Higher People's Court opened a trial for Zhang Yuhuan's case of intentional homicide. After a morning trial, the collegiate panel announced an elective sentence.
In the court, the Jiangxi Provincial People's Procuratorate's court prosecutor issued a court opinion, suggesting that Zhang Yuhuan be sentenced to not guilty. The prosecutor who appeared in court stated that the evidence found in the original trial was insufficient. First, it could not prove that the sack was a corpse throwing tool. The sack was salvaged by the witness Zhang Pengfei and four other people near the reservoir where the body was found, and the sack extracted from Zhang Yuhuan’s home was patched. The method is different; and the sack fiber on Zhang Yuhuan’s clothes is not exclusive; in addition, it cannot be proved that hemp rope is the tool of crime. Only Zhang Yuhuan’s second confession mentioned this, and none of the three physical evidences It is directly confirmed that Zhang Yuhuan committed a criminal act, so there is no objective evidence in this case. However, Zhang Yuhuan's two guilty confessions were inconsistent, and there were significant differences in important links such as the location of the crime, the means, and the time when the corpse was thrown. The authenticity is doubtful. The original judgment only convicted a guilty confession, first confession and then testimony, which was inconsistent with the facts. In summary, it is recommended that the court amend not guilty.
Zhang Yuhuan reiterated his injustice in his final statement, saying that the confession was made under torture, and that his wife was dispersed after more than 26 years in prison, and he begged the court to give him justice.
The Paper noted that as of August 4, Zhang Yuhuan has been detained for a total of 9,778 days, and is currently the longest suspected party in custody reported by the media.
Wang Fei said that if Zhang Yuhuan's case is changed and he is not guilty, he will apply for state compensation in the follow-up, and he will be held accountable for the judicial personnel who handled the case in violation of the law.
Looking forward to the reunion moment: tomb sweeping, glutinous rice balls and family portrait
For the Zhang family, family reunion is their biggest wish right now. Since the retrial on July 9th, Zhang Minqiang has not had a good night's sleep. He couldn't help calling the Jiangxi High Court several times to ask about the date of sentencing, and all the responses he got were "almost, soon".
Song Xiaonv rushed back to her hometown from Fujian specially, and Zhang Baoren and Zhang Baogang, two sons of her ex-husband Zhang Yuhuan, were also waiting in Jinxian for a long time. In order to save hotel expenses, they temporarily stayed at Song Xiaonv's younger brother's house in Jinxian County, but daily life His expenses quickly ran out of the 5,000 yuan given by his current husband before leaving.
In her free time, she took her son back to visit her mother-in-law, only to see Zhang Binglian holding a white plastic bag drying things in front of her house. After the torrential rain in Nanchang in July, the rice soaked in water and gave birth to insects. Zhang Binglian was reluctant to throw it away, "because it was prepared for Zhang Yuhuan to go home." Seeing this scene, Song Xiaonu's tears could not stop.
Before the accident, Zhang Yuhuan and Song Xiaonu's photo
Zhang Baogang, Zhang Yuhuan’s second son, told The Paper that on the day of the retrial, Zhang Binglian lost her temper because she did not wait for Zhang Yuhuan to return home. She sat on the concrete floor for a long time and refused to get up. No one in her family rushed to persuade her, “Who can give her? How about quasi-trust?"
Until July 25, there was still no news of the verdict. Song Xiaonv and her son took the train back to Zhangzhou. During the trip, she posted a circle of friends: "In just 20 days, it seems to have brought me back to 1993. Days."
In an earlier interview with The Paper, she had mentioned her plan to take Zhang Yuhuan home after returning home: rent a house for him in the county seat and live with her son and grandson for a period of time to help him better integrate into society. Then, she will return to her current husband.
For Zhang Baoren and Zhang Baogang, their mother's choice is justifiable, they understand and support it. Zhang Baogang only hopes to take a family portrait when the family still has a chance to be together.
After receiving the news of the court's verdict, Song Xiaonv and her three mothers hurried back to Jinxian again. Zhang Minqiang said that the family has been working for his younger brother’s case for more than 20 years, and finally waited until the day when the sentence was pronounced. All preparations have been made for Zhang Yuhuan to go home. If Zhang Yuhuan can be acquitted, the first thing he wants to do is to let him return to his hometown and Mother reunited. "Today is just fifteen, and the moon is particularly round in these two days. I am going to let my sister cook a pot of glutinous rice balls, and each family member will eat a few to please." Zhang Minqiang said.
In the first half of 1993 when Zhang Yuhuan was taken away, his old father had just passed away due to illness. If all goes well, Zhang Minqiang plans to take his younger brother to sweep his father’s grave. "He hasn’t been there once in the past 27 years. Consolation father is in the spirit of heaven."