Man receives compensation for wrongful jail

A man who was wrongly sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for rape and murder has received 1.5 million yuan ($241,000) of State compensation after the murderer confessed, Legal Evening News reported on Tuesday.

Wang Benyu, 60, a farmer in Sichuan province, worked as a migrant worker in Hebei province and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region since he left his hometown in 1991. On Dec 15, 1994, Wang's colleague Li Yanming raped and killed a girl and threatened to kill Wang if he reported the crime to police. Wang helped Li dump the body and let Li escape. The next day, police in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, detained Wang as a suspect in the rape and murder.

Wang was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in November 1996 and his appeals were ignored.

In 2012, Li was caught in Beijing for other crimes and confessed that he raped and killed the girl in 1994. In September 2013, Wang's judgment was changed to harboring Li and his sentence was reduced to three years imprisonment.

Recently, Wang received compensation for his 18 years of wrongful imprisonment.