Abstract
In the summer of 1994, there were two successive car-jack murder cases of taxi drivers in the city of Chengde, Hebei Province. First, on the evening of 30th July, Liu Fujun was attacked in the city center. Second, on the night of 16th August, Zhang Ming was attacked in the suburbs. Both men were stabbed to death. In both cases, only a small amount of property was taken—a few hundred yuan (RMB), a pager, and so on—and the vehicles were abandoned at the scene. When searching for leads, the investigation team’s suspicion fell on four young people who lived in the countryside near the site of the second case. Local accounts identified the four as a gang of youths who were always up to no good. In October 1994, investigators searched the homes of Chen Guoqing and his three friends. An important piece of evidence was found in Chen’s home—a blood-stained knife. The investigators believed that Chen and the other three were guilty of theft and murder.
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Notes
- 1.
See Li (2016).
- 2.
See He (2011a).
- 3.
See Zhang and Liu (2002).
- 4.
Jon (1983, p. 15).
- 5.
On 8 May 1999, a corpse with no head and several missing limbs was found in an abandoned well in a village of Shangqiu City, Henan Province. Public security investigation determined that the body was that of Zhao Zhenshang, a local villager who had been missing for more than a year. They also determined the prime suspect to be Zhao Zuohai, also from the same village. Zhao Zuohai confessed to the murder during interrogation. The public security bureau sent the case to the procuratorate, which found the evidence insufficient and ordered the public security bureau to complete DNA analysis to verify the identity of the deceased. Public security officials ordered four separate DNA analyses, but none were able to certify that the body was actually that of Zhao Zhenshang. At this point the case reached an impasse: public security officials refused to release Zhao Zuohai, and the procuratorate refused to issue an indictment, leaving Zhao in a detention limbo. In 2002 the People’s Procuratorate of Henan Province chose Zhao’s case as one that required clearing up because of overdue custody. The local political-legal work committee held a joint meeting of the three branches and then made a decision to “issue an indictment within twenty days.” On 22 Oct., the Shangqiu Municipal Procuratorate issued the indictment. On Dec. 5, the Shangqiu Intermediate People’s Court gave Zhao Zuohai a suspended death sentence. On 13 Feb. 2003, the Hebei High People’s Court reviewed and approved the decision of the lower court. However, this was not the end of the case. Seven years later, on 30 Apr. 2010, the victim, Zhao Zhenshang, turned up alive! On May 8, the Henan High Court reversed its decision and gave Zhao Zuohai a verdict of not guilty and released him the following day. See He and He (2012).
- 6.
Jon (1983, p. 47).
- 7.
Jon (1983, p. 58).
- 8.
See He (2011b).
- 9.
Garner (1999).
- 10.
- 11.
After Du Peiwu was exonerated in 2000, the polygraph examiners were widely criticized. One of the examiners sent a letter to me, this author, outlining her opinion of what she knew of the case. She averred that Du’s answers had been inconsistent. Although he exhibited signs of having told lies, he showed signs of telling the truth when he answered questions directly related to his case. She says she noted this in the final report of the polygraph testing, but her concerns were overlooked by investigators who simply wanted proof that Du had been telling lies.
- 12.
Ai (2001).
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He, J. (2018). The Rules of Judicial Proof. In: Methodology of Judicial Proof and Presumption. Masterpieces of Contemporary Jurisprudents in China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8025-8_4
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