Top court overrules death penalties
Print Edition
CHINA’S supreme court yesterday annulled the death sentences handed down to two people convicted of forcing the 10-year-old daughter of a social campaigner into prostitution.
Zhou Junhui and Qin Xing, who were found guilty of rape, organizing prostitution and forcing others into prostitution, will be retried at the Hunan high court.
The case drew attention as the victim’s mother, Tang Hui, was put into China’s now defunct reeducation through labor program for petitioning for harsher punishments for Zhou and Qin.
Tang was sent to a camp in Yongzhou, Hunan, for “seriously disturbing social order and exerting a negative impact on society” after protesting in front of local government buildings in August 2012. She was later sentenced to 18 months in the camp, but was released after eight days in response to a public outcry.
In July last year, a Hunan court ruled in her favor when she sued the local authority for infringing her freedom and causing her psychological harm. The case also helped bring about the abolition of the reeducation through labor program late last year.
Zhou and Qin were sentenced to death on June 5, 2012, at the Hunan Provincial People’s Higher Court.
A collegiate bench of the Supreme People’s Court made the decision to annul their sentences after reviewing documents, questioning defendants, and listening to defense lawyers, the victim and her relatives.
It found that in collaboration with others, the pair were guilty of forcing Tang’s daughter, surnamed Zhang, into prostitution with violence and threats of violence.
Zhou was also found guilty of having a sexual relationship with Zhang, even though he knew she was under 14, the age of consent in China.
Qin was found guilty of organizing prostitution by recruiting and accommodating a number of women for prostitution.
Zhang was raped on several occasions, leaving her with genital herpes and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The supreme court said Zhou and Qin’s crimes were serious both in terms of circumstance and consequence, and the facts identified in the first and second instances were clear, and the conviction was accurate.
However, taking into consideration that the crime of forcing others into prostitution was not extremely serious in terms of violence, threat or circumstance, the death penalties were inappropriate, the court said.
Also, the review found new evidence suggesting that Qin helped prevent an inmate with whom she was detained from committing suicide. If verified, the evidence might warrant more lenient treatment for her, the court said.
The state’s labor camp system, or laojiao, was introduced in the 1950s. It mostly took in offenders whose crimes were not severe enough for them to go to court.
Last November, the Communist Party decided to abolish the system, and in December, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved the decision.
The annulment of the death sentences is also in line with China’s more prudent attitude toward the use of capital punishment. In January 2007, the Supreme People Court reserved the right to review all death penalty decisions after provincial higher courts drew fire amid reports of miscarriages of justice.
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