Chinese nurse compensated millions for wrong murder conviction

KUNMING - A Chinese woman received 1.72 million yuan (about 258,300 U.S dollars) on Tuesday for a wrongful murder conviction that put her behind bars for 13 years, the Higher People's Court of Yunnan province said.

The court ruled that Qian Renfeng's confession was made under duress and that she was not guilt of the murder charge she was convicted for in February 2002.

Qian was working at a nursery where a toddler died of food poisoning and two other children were hospitalized.

Qian, who had prepared the children's meals that day, was forced into confessing that she had mixed raticide in the food. It was on the basis of this forced confession that she found guilty of murder.

In July 2013, the Yunnan provincial procuratorate reopened her case. The investigation took nearly two years. In May 2015, the procuratorate ruled that there was a lack of evidence to support the conviction, and advised the provincial higher court to rehear the case.

The higher court in December last year quashed the sentence, ruling that it lacked sufficient evidence to determine guilt beyond reasonable doubt. She was exonerated and released.

Qian had filed for up to 9.55 million yuan (about 1.45 million U.S. dollars) in damages.