Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here. The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.
By Ni Dandan Source:Global Times Published: 2014-8-23 0:38:01
Fujian native Nian Bin found innocent after four death sentences for poisoning
After spending eight years behind bars, Nian Bin, 38, walked free on Friday after the Fujian High People's Court acquitted him of poisoning charges due to insufficient evidence. Nian had previously been sentenced to death four times.
In Aoqian township, Pingtan country in Fujian Province on July 27, 2006, Nian's landlady Chen Yanjiao, her daughter, another tenant of Chen's named Ding Yunxia and her three children had a meal together. Four of them displayed symptoms of poisoning shortly afterward.
The older son and daughter of Ding died the second morning. Nian Bin, who was their neighbor and ran a grocery store business next to Ding, was detained on August 7 by the police as a major suspect as fluoroacetic acid salt ions was detected on the doorknob in Nian's store leading to the crime scene.
After Nian confessed to dosing the family with rat poison, the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced him to death in February 2008. Nian later stated that the confession was made after he was tortured and threatened by the investigators.
He made an appeal to the Fujian High People's Court and the case was sent back for retrial due to unclear facts and insufficient evidence in December 2008.
In October 2010, the Supreme People's Court rejected the death sentence submitted by local courts. In November 2011, the intermediate court again sentenced Nian to immediate execution.
After Nian made another appeal, Fujian High People's Court arranged two trials in July 2013 and June 2014, which brought the investigators and forensic experts to the court to testify for the case.
The court finally judged that although the suspect "confessed," there was no sufficient evidence to prove that the victims died of fluoroacetic acid, believed to be the poison used, and there was no solid evidence on the source or the administration of the poison.
Si Weijiang, one of the defense lawyers for Nian Bin, told the Global Times that Nian walked out a free man thanks to the country's improving justice environment.
"Starting from last year, the country's justice system has been paying growing attention to normal criminal cases. The trials have been involving more testimony. I believe this case would be of reference value to others of the similar nature."
Chen Weidong, a law professor with the Renmin University of China, said that the Fuzhou High People's Court must have dealt with mounting pressure coming up with this final verdict, but the eventual decision revealed that the justice system's resolution to stick to the law.
"The investigators of this case had previously been awarded for their work. We could imagine the final verdict had been made uneasily. But that's what justice is about. While solving conflicts, the legal system emphasizes the guarantee of human rights, to protect the innocent from unnecessary criminal punishment. This process includes the correction of wrongly-judged cases," said Chen.
"As long as a case involves a human life, the investigators are under great pressure to crack it. Torture is a common practice," said Si, who believes that such tough requirements led the justice system to sometimes produce mistaken judgments.
"I hope this case could serve as a driving force. The eventual progress in this regard has everything to do with the justice departments like the courts and procuratorates instead of lawyers," Si said.
After Friday's final verdict, Nian Jianlan, Nian Bin's sister, said they would definitely ask for State compensation.
A man was acquitted Friday by the higher people's court of East China's Fujian Province, eight years after being wrongly imprisoned for poisoning four people, two of whom died.
The court overturned grocery shop owner Nian Bin's 2008 conviction for murder, citing insufficient evidence. This is the final ruling after four guilty verdicts and subsequent appeals.
On the evening of July 27, 2006, four people in Pingtan county of Fuzhou, three of them children, fell ill while having supper. Two of the children died later.
Police believed their neighbor Nian Bin, then 30, was responsible because he was not on good terms with the victims' family.
The first verdict came in February, 2008, when the Intermediate People's Court in Fuzhou sentenced Nian to death. Nian appealed, but his fate did not change until October, 2010, when the Supreme People's Court reviewed the sentence. It ruled that "the facts are not clear and the evidence is not sufficient" while ordering local courts to rehear the case.p
When reversing the verdict, the higher people's court of Fujian said that the evidence was conflicting and not enough to prove the victims died from rat poison. There was lack of proof where the poison was from, and some doubts could not be explained.
After Nian was freed, he cried when meeting his elder sister and uncle. His parents died during the eight years he was in jail.
In an open letter Nian's lawyers Li Yansheng and Si Weijiang thanked the courts for the rehabilitation. "We hope that this case will help boost the rule of law in China," said the letter.
His sister Nian Jianlan and the lawyers said when Nian was behind bars, he was tortured to extract confession. "We will ask that the torturers be held responsible," she was quoted as saying by the People's Daily. "We will ask for compensation. Money is not enough to compensate for what we lost in these years, and I will never forgive them."
She said the case was not over. "The family of the victims also wants justice," she said. "While they were interrogating my brother, they were letting the real murder walk free."
Zeng Ling, a lawyer with the Qinxian legal firm of Xiamen in Fujian told Xinhua that the acquittal showed the caution of the courts in resorting to the death penalty.
Last August, the Anhui Provincial Higher People's Court set Yu Yingsheng free, 17 years after he was sent to jail for allegedly killing his wife.
In another case, Wang Shujin in north China's Hebei Province admitted to raping and murdering a woman in 1994, a crime for which 21-year-old Nie Shubin was executed in 1995.
The Supreme People's Court started to review all death penalty rulings on Jan. 1, 2007, ending the 24-year power of lower courts to issue death sentences and execute criminals without the approval of the supreme court.
