Reform strengthens rule of law
The quashing of a number of high-profile convictions last year highlighted the changes taking place in China’s courts. Cao Yin reports.
Li Shuting could not hold back his tears on Dec 2, when a court of appeal overturned Nie Shubin’s conviction for rape and murder, and proclaimed him innocent of all charges.
Li, who acted for Nie’s family during the appeal process, had waited 11 years for the ruling, while the family had struggled for two decades, but Nie, who Li had come to regard as a younger brother, was unable to share their joy because the 21-year-old native of Hebei province was executed in April 1995.
Later, the lawyer wrote on his blog that he had seen positive proof of the country’s efforts to strengthen the rule of law, adding, “Justice is sometimes late, but it will never be absent”.
Although the case had taken up 11 years of Li’s life, Nie’s family had been fighting for justice since shortly after the death sentence was handed down, when Nie’s mother, Zhang Huanzhi, who refused to believe that her son was guilty, began the appeal process.
For the first 10 years of her struggle, Zhang’s pleas were repeatedly ignored by the government departments responsible for providing information and handling the appeal process. The light at the end of the tunnel came in 2005, when a man named Wang Shujin, who was already in prison, confessed to the crimes that cost Nie his life.
That was also the year that Li became the family’s lawyer, and although the appeal process experienced many successes and reversals, he and the family never gave up.
“I could feel the improvements in the legal system, especially after 2013, when the central leadership highlighted the importance of the rule of law,” Li said. “At first, I was anxious when I was refused permission to examine the judgment and evidence presented during Nie’s trial in Hebei, but when the appeal was transferred to a court in Shandong (province), everything began to go well.”
Nie’s family has applied to the Hebei Provincial High People’s Court for State compensation of nearly 14 million yuan ($2 million), and asked the court to identify and punish the individuals responsible for the flawed conviction. The process is ongoing.
Convictions overturned
Twenty days after Nie was declared innocent, four men from Jiangxi province, who had been convicted of rape, a double murder and dismembering a body, also had their convictions overturned because the case against them was inconsistent and there was insufficient evidence to uphold their sentences.
The cases inspired China’s legal professionals, who saw the reversals as prime examples of the principle enshrined in China’s Criminal Law that proceedings should be halted if there is any suspicion that a case is flawed. As a result, they redoubled their determination to correct judicial errors.
Liu Weidong, deputy head of the Jiangxi Lawyers’ Association, said legal officials should never use improperly obtained evidence, and emphasized that the rights of defense lawyers should be protected.
In 2005, when he began to help Nie’s family with the appeal, Li was 41. Now, he is 52 and his hair has turned gray.
“About 10 years ago, I was energetic and had long, black hair. But now, I have become an old man ,” he said. “Time moves so slowly, but it also flies. The hardest time was when I went to the court in Hebei to examine the materials related to Nie’s case. I was refused permission to see the judgment, let alone the related archives,” he said.
Frustration
Dressed in a dark-blue suit and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, L ii san easygoing, urbane conversationalist, but that hasn’t always been the case in his professional life, especially during the fight to clear Nie’s name.
“You can’t imagine how I felt — I was frustrated all the time, which almost sent me crazy. Once, as I walked down a street, I looked at the pale sky and it reminded me of Nie’s mother’s eyes. I felt such despair,” he said. “Sometimes I felt the need to shout out loud because I couldn’t find any other way of releasing my frustration.”
When the case failed to progress for several months, Life ll into a deep depression, so he visited a temple in an attempt to ease his mind. “I wanted to find inner peace that could help me handle the case with a good attitude, no matter where the pressure came from,” he said.
In 2007, Li was finally given access to the court judgment. He compared his excitement to the day he received the letter informing him that his college application had been successful.
After 2013, when the central leadership began promoting the rule of law and judicial reforms, Li wrote thousands of words to prove Nie’s innocence. In 2014, in a move designed to prevent interference by the government in Hebei, the Supreme People’s Court ordered the Shandong Provincial High People’s Court to
Justice is sometimes late, but it will never be absent.” Li Shuting, the lawyer who represented the family of Nie Shubin
review the case. The Dec 2 ruling was announced by a branch of the Supreme People's Court in Shenyang, Liaoning province.
For Li, the news signaled a major change of approach by the legal authorities. “In the past, rule of law was just slogan to me, but now it is the reality,” he said.
During the review process, Li accompanied Nie’s mother to the court in Shandong several times. “We were treated warmly and my rights were fully protected ,” he said.
“I was not only allowed to go through the materials related to Nie’s case, but also Wang Shujin’s. As a criminal lawyer, I felt respected and protected. That’s how the rule of law has progressed, and I hope the improvements will continue as a way of protecting everybody’s rights.”
Guiding principle
On Dec 22, the Jiangxi Provincial High People’s Court overturned the convictions of Huang Zhiqiang, Fang Chunping, Cheng Fagen and Cheng Lihe — the four men from Jiangxi province jailed for rape, double murder and dismembering a body — after ruling that their confessions may have been obtained though coercion or subterfuge.
Huang Huasheng, a professor of law at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics in Nanchang, the provincial capital, said the decision was further evidence that the principle that flawed cases should not be brought to trial is being observed by the country’s legal professionals.
In 2003, the four men were sentenced to death by a court in Jingdezhen, a prefecture-level city in the province, after being incorrectly identified as the perpetrators of the crimes, which occurred in 2000.
In 2006, following an appeal, the court changed the men’s sentences to death with a two-year reprieve, a tariff that is usually commuted to life imprisonment.
Six years later, a man named Fan gLinzai admitted responsibility for the crimes, which accelerated the appeal process and resulted in the men’s convictions being quashed.
“Justice finally arrived after our efforts against improper collection of evidence (by the police),” Jian Yiping, Cheng Lihe’s lawyer, said.
Huang echoed Jian’s words, saying the nation’s judicial bodies have often convicted people despite the inconsistent and circumstantial evidence brought against them. “They (judicial bodies) rarely upheld the principle that no penalty should be applied if there are any doubts about the validity of a case,” he said, adding that such behavior violated the law, contradicted established legal procedure and was the source of a number of wrongful convictions.
“It’s pleasing to see that the country has introduced judicial reforms to highlight independence and transparency in court hearings. The changes will help to uphold justice,” Huang said.
Since 2013, in a move that has pleased Li, Nie’s family lawyer, China’s courts have vowed to ensure that every defendant will be treated in accordance with the law. “I totally agree with the move and support it,” he said.
“In the past, our justice system was always enshrined in weighty legal documents, so regular people had no idea about what it was. But now they can ‘see’ and ‘feel’ it during lawsuits,” he added.
“When every single case — each one a brick in the ‘legal building’ — can be conducted secure in the knowledge that the evidence has been collected legally and in accordance with the principle of no trials for flawed cases, I believe that justice will protect us all the time.” Contact the writer at caoyin@ chinadaily.com.cn