Court compensation for innocent man
Print Edition
A MAN who served 23 years in jail after being wrongly convicted of murder and arson was yesterday awarded 2.75 million yuan (US$429,000) compensation.
Yan Xianwen, a spokesman for Hainan Higher People’s Court in south China, said that 1.85 million yuan was for wrongfully depriving Chen Man of his freedom for 8,437 days, based on the standard daily per-capita income. The rest was for “emotional suffering.”
After Chen, 53, was released in February, he demanded more than 9.66 million yuan and for the court to apologize in national and local media outlets.
He wanted 1.85 million yuan for loss of freedom, 3.71 million yuan for loss of work, 3 million yuan for emotional anguish, 1 million for legal costs, and 100,000 yuan for medical expenses.
“I am disappointed by the final amount, but I accept it,” Chen said yesterday. He did not want to “waste more time and energy on further appeals.” He only wanted to live a normal life and said he would now try to find a job.
Chen was arrested at the end of 1992 and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by Haikou Intermediate People’s Court in November 1994, a sentence deemed “too light” by prosecutors who called for immediate execution, a request finally rejected by Hainan Higher People’s Court in 1999.
The victim, Zhong Zuokuan, Chen’s landlord, was killed on Christmas Day 1992. Chen had argued with Zhong over the rent and had been asked to move out. The procuratorate alleged that Chen had hacked Zhong to death and set fire to his body.
On the orders of the Supreme People’s Court, a high court in east China’s Zhejiang Province reopened Chen’s case last year, as “his role in the murder is not clear and the original judgment lacks evidence.”
The Zhejiang court quashed the conviction after finding a number of failings. Chen’s statements on the timing, methods and weapon used were inconsistent with the crime scene investigation, forensic report or witness testimony. Chen claimed parts of his confession was obtained under torture.
China has occasionally exonerated wrongfully executed or jailed convicts after others came forward to confess their crimes, or in some cases because the supposed murder victim was later found alive.
Of those exonerated in recent years, Chen spent the longest in prison.
For others, new verdicts came far too late. A man named Hugjiltu was cleared of rape and murder in 2014, nearly two decades after he was convicted and executed at the age of 18 in the northern region of Inner Mongolia.
The declaration of his innocence came nine years after another man confessed to the crime.
His parents received state compensation of more than 2 million yuan.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
