Hunan judge stabbed to death by disgruntled claimant

A woman was sentenced to death on Wednesday after a court in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, identified her as having murdered a judge at the beginning of this year.

The Changsha Intermediate People's Court publicly announced the sentence to the defendant, Xiang Hui, and ordered her to pay about 38,000 yuan ($5,914) to judge Zhou Chunmei's estate as compensation.

The court said that Xiang, who comes from the same town as Zhou, decided to kill the Hunan High People's Court judge after she refused to bend the law in a labor-related lawsuit Xiang had filed with the court.

To get close to her target, Xiang took a job on Jan 4 as a cleaner in the housing community in which Zhou lived, the court said.

At around 7 am on Jan 12, Xiang attacked the 45-year-old mother of two in the community's underground parking lot, stabbing her several times in the head and neck with a knife and causing her to bleed to death.

"Xiang's behavior constitutes intentional homicide, and her crime deserves harsher punishment because the method of killing was extremely cruel," the court said in the ruling.

No information about whether Xiang will appeal to a higher court have been released so far.

According to the Hunan High People's Court, Zhou was diligent, dedicated and firmly upheld the law during her 17 years of service.