15 years for ‘mercy killing’ son

The story appears on

Page A5

August 26, 2014

Free for subscribers

By Hu Min | August 26, 2014, Tuesday |

Print Edition

A MAN who said he killed his mother because he said she was in pain was jailed yesterday for 15 years.

The man, surnamed Li, stabbed his mother with scissors before strangling and smothering her, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court heard.

Defense lawyers for Li, who is in his 60s, claimed that he wanted to end the suffering of his bed-ridden mother, who had fractured her leg last year.

Li said he felt torment seeing the pain that his mother was in.

However, prosecutors said Li stabbed and suffocated his mother on impulse in March because she complained of the pain she was suffering.

Li was tired of caring for her, prosecutors told the court.

His neighborhood committee said Li, who lived with his wife and mother, accompanied elderly neighbors to hospital and was said to be kind-hearted.

The sentence took into account that Li had surrendered to police and was previously of good character, the court said. Li did not seek an appeal.

Metro Society