High-profile criminal executed after top court review

Wang Shujin, a high-profile criminal, was executed in Hebei province on Tuesday after his death sentence for rape and intentional killing was upheld by China's top court.

Wang, a native of Hebei, was sentenced to death for intentional homicide by the provincial Handan Intermediate People's Court on Nov 24. He was also sentenced to 15 years in prison for rape. The court combined the sentences into a death penalty.

Wang appealed, but the Hebei High People's Court rejected his appeal, upholding his convictions and the death sentence. The sentence was then submitted to the Supreme People's Court for review, as all death penalties made by lower courts have to get final approval from the top court under the Criminal Procedure Law.

After review, the top court found Wang guilty of four rapes, three killings and an attempted killing from 1993 to 1995, charging him with the crimes of rape and intentional homicide.

"Wang had been previously placed behind bars for rape, but he raped again and did the killings without repentance and correction after release, meaning his criminal intent as well as his personal and social threats were extremely serious," it said. "Although he turned himself in, he couldn't be leniently penalized."

It acknowledged the ruling made and upheld by the Hebei courts, noting the facts of the case were clear, the evidence to prove Wang's conviction was sufficient, the death sentence appropriate and the trial procedures legitimate.

The Handan court carried out the execution after receiving the decision from the top court. Wang's close relatives refused to meet him, even though the court told them they had the right of meeting before the execution, according to the top court's statement.

Wang, 53, attracted public attention in 2005 when he was detained and voluntarily confessed to six rapes and murders. In 2007, the Handan court sentenced him to death after finding him guilty of three rapes, two killings and an attempted murder.

The death penalty was upheld by the high court in Hebei in 2013 and then submitted to the top court for review.

In November 2020, however, the top court overturned the death penalty and sent the case back to the Handan court for retrial because of newly discovered evidence.

During the rehearing, the Handan court said the new evidence was the result of a DNA test on a skeleton found by police following directions given by Wang. It was related to the rape and murder of a woman surnamed Zhang in 1993 that Wang confessed to while in detention.

But Wang was unhappy, as the result did not include another killing he also claimed to be responsible for in 2005.

In that year, he confessed to raping and killing a woman surnamed Kang in a cornfield in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei, in 1994. Although the confession was rejected by the Handan court due to insufficient evidence, it aroused huge public attention because another man, Nie Shubin, had already been sentenced to death and executed for the crimes in 1995.

Wang's confession to Kang's rape and murder prompted a reinvestigation of the case. In December 2016 the top court found Nie not guilty, as the evidence in the case was not strong enough to convict him.

In the past decade, Wang still insisted he raped and killed Kang, but the confession was continuously rejected by the Handan court because his testimony did not match the physical evidence in Kang's case.

In response to public doubts over whether Wang took the confession of Kang's case as a meritorious service for escaping from the death sentence, the top court explained on Tuesday that those who confess to others' crimes, instead of their own offenses, after being captured could be identified as meritorious service.

"People who plead guilty to their crimes can be defined as having confessed or turned themselves in," it said. "Additionally, convicts will only be held criminally liable for confessions that receive courts' identification."