New life for woman forced to admit murder
Print Edition
At 31, Qian Renfeng is unmarried, homeless and jobless. After spending more than a decade in prison for a crime she did not commit, she must now adjust to life in a world that seems almost alien.
When her life sentence for murder was quashed last week, Qian did not even know how to use a cellphone. When she was incarcerated in March 2002, such devices had barely made it to her impoverished village in Qiaojia County in southwest China鈥檚 Yunnan Province.
Her village is almost unrecognizable now. However, while new, flat, tarmac roads connect neat buildings which boast all the trappings of modern society, her childhood home is the same old, rundown shack she left 13 years ago.
In February 2002, at a nursery where Qian was working as a nurse, a toddler died of food poisoning and two other children were admitted to hospital.
Qian, who had prepared the children鈥檚 meals that day, was forced into confessing that she had mixed rat poison in with the food. It was based on this forced confession that she was found guilty of murder.
鈥淭he interrogators made me kneel for hours, cuffed my hands behind my back,鈥 she said. 鈥淚n a state of fury, extreme pain and exhaustion, I said I was guilty.鈥
She said that she had littered her confession with contradictions in the hope investigators would uncover the lies and declare her innocent, but they didn鈥檛. She only escaped capital punishment because she had not yet turned 18. The death penalty does not apply to minors.
Stripped of freedom
The world has changed so much in the years when Qian was stripped of her freedom.
Her mother died eight months before she was released from jail. 鈥淚 was told that even on her deathbed, mom was inconsolable over my absence and my wrongful conviction,鈥 she told reporters earlier this week.
While Qian only made it to the fifth grade, her sister, who is two years younger and illiterate, is married and has a son. Qian spent her first two nights of freedom in her sister鈥檚 family home, and could not shake off her resentment.
鈥淪he has everything and I have nothing 鈥 not even an ID, which means I can鈥檛 buy a cellphone or open a bank account,鈥 she said.
As bleak as Qian鈥檚 future may seem, she remained resolute throughout her prison term, even when her pleas of innocence fell on deaf ears.
Although she found writing extremely difficult, while behind bars Qian wrote petition after petition asking for a retrial, but to no avail.
Then in April 2010, a group of lawyers visited the No. 2 Prison for Women in Yunnan Province to offer prisoners legal advice.
鈥淭heir visit was a glimmer of hope in the darkness, so I shared my story with Yang Zhu, one of the lawyers,鈥 she said.
Yang said he saw something in Qian鈥檚 eyes that convinced him of her innocence. 鈥淚 saw extreme sadness, grievance and urgency, which was rare in someone who had been in prison for eight years.鈥
Lack of evidence
When Yang studied Qian鈥檚 files, he found the contradictions in her 鈥渃onfession,鈥 forged signatures on documents Qian said she had never seen, and an apparent lack of substantial evidence to support her murder conviction.
Yang helped Qian file for a retrial in August 2011. Even though the provincial higher people鈥檚 court rejected the petition, Yang refused to give up.
In July 2013, the Yunnan procuratorate agreed to reopen the case. In May 2015, it ruled there was a lack of evidence to support the conviction, and advised the provincial higher court to rehear the case.
The retrial was in September and Qian was declared innocent on December 22.
After all these years, Yang still hopes the real killer will be found and those who tortured Qian will be brought to book.
The higher people鈥檚 court has ordered an investigation into the people who handled Qian鈥檚 case in 2002, vowing to punish any of those implicated in the miscarriage of justice.
Qian counts herself lucky she still has the opportunity to rebuild her life.
鈥淚鈥檓 ready to start from the very beginning,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like moving into an empty house. You buy a bed today, a fridge tomorrow and a cooker the day after. Step by step, you will build a life for yourself.鈥
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