After the Supreme People's Procuratorate protested, the victim's family called and said that their child was killed during the Lantern Festival. Seven years later, on the Lantern Festival, the Supreme People's Procuratorate notified the protest. The family was so excited that the

After the Supreme People's Procuratorate protested, the victim's family called and said that their child was killed during the Lantern Festival. Seven years later, on the Lantern Festival, the Supreme People's Procuratorate notified the protest. The family was so excited that they could not sleep for many days... This is There was one detail that deeply touched me in the process of handling the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s protest against Xin Long’s intentional homicide case.

Time goes back to 2015. At about 6:20 on March 6 of that year, the victim Zhang Mouyan was found dead downstairs in her home. The evidence in the case can confirm that on the night of March 5 (Lantern Festival), Zhang Mouyan’s boyfriend Xin Long had been at the scene of the crime, namely Zhang Mouyan’s home, and was suspected of committing a major crime, but Xin Long refused to admit that he caused the victim’s death.

Did Xin Long kill someone? The case handling process was full of twists and turns. The court of first instance found that Xin Long committed intentional homicide and sentenced him to a suspended death sentence. Xin Long refused to accept the appeal, and the second-instance court remanded the case for retrial and acquitted him. The victim's family has been dissatisfied and appealed to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

After I took over the case, the top priority of the review was whether Xin Long was the real murderer. The main reasons for the original trial's acquittal were: the time of death of the victim in this case could not be determined; the period of about 2 hours from the defendant's departure to the discovery of the victim's body was blank; there were multiple suspected footprints left at the victim's residence that were not compared, etc. The court held that the evidence was not reliable and sufficient to eliminate reasonable doubt that a third party committed the crime.

After reviewing the evidence in the entire case, I believe that the reasons for the not guilty verdict are untenable: First, Xin Long had the motive to commit the crime. Xin Long had an emotional dispute with the victim, and the conflict intensified seriously. Second, the crime scene conforms to the characteristics of an acquaintance committing a crime. Third, Xin Long had the time and conditions to commit the crime. Fourth, although Xin Long did not admit to killing the victim, he firmly confessed that he covered the victim's mouth and nose to stop the victim from screaming on the night of the incident. This is consistent with the autopsy results that the victim died of mechanical asphyxiation due to external force. Fifth, the biological test materials extracted on site only detected the DNA of Xin Long and Zhang Mouyan. Sixth, neighbors downstairs confirmed that a man and a woman were fighting and arguing upstairs that night until they quieted down around 3 a.m. Xin Long's mobile phone location showed that he had not left the neighborhood where the crime occurred at that time. Based on the comprehensive analysis of the evidence in the entire case, I think we can form an inner conviction that Xin Long committed the murder.

Although I am convinced in my heart that Xin Long carried out the case, in order to change the sentence, the evidence must be strengthened. I went to the place where the crime occurred to have discussions and exchanges with the original prosecutors and investigators of the case to gain an in-depth understanding of the relevant situation. After that, I re-examined the crime scene, collected evidence again, and commissioned an appraisal. When the crime scene was re-examined, more than six years had passed since the crime occurred, but the crime scene was still intact, which is what is unusual about this case.

In addition, I launched an investigation into Xin Long. Before going, I carefully designed the survey outline and buried the questions I wanted to ask among a large number of general and trivial questions. During the inquiry, I approached Xin Long in a "chatty" way, concerned about Xin Long's living conditions, and encouraged him to relax his vigilance. On that day, he presented a large amount of detailed evidence that was extremely beneficial to the conviction, and achieved five or six key breakthroughs in the confession. For example, he confessed the victim's eating time, and combined with the evidence in the case, it can be determined that the victim's death time was between 3 and 4 a.m.; another example is that he admitted that the suspected footprints at the scene were left by himself, but the original trial verdict was that the suspected footprints at the scene were unknown. important reason for sin.

We also entrusted the Ministry of Public Security to re-examine the suspected footprints at the crime scene. In the end, experts unanimously concluded that the suspected shoe prints at the scene were left by Xin Long.

After strengthening the evidence, it can be determined that Xin Long had not left when the victim died. The suspected footprints at the scene were left by Xin Long. This can eliminate reasonable suspicion that a third person committed the crime. It can be determined that Xin Long covered the victim's mouth and nose at the victim's home on the night of the incident. He died and then dumped his body downstairs to look like a suicide. Based on this, I put forward the review opinion that the original judgment was wrong and should be corrected through appeal.

The case was reviewed by the Supreme Procuratorate and Procuratorate and decided to lodge a protest with the Supreme People's Court. After a retrial ordered by the Supreme People's Court, the Dalian Intermediate Court and the Liaoning Provincial High Court's first and second trials finally changed the sentence of Xin Long to death with a suspended death sentence for intentional homicide and deprived him of his political rights for life.

When handling criminal cases, going from guilty to innocent is like "breaking down a house", and going from innocent to guilty is like "building a house." "Building a house" must have four beams and eight pillars, so that the house can stand.This is my reflection on handling the Supreme People's Procuratorate's protest against Xin Long's intentional homicide case. For a case, the material that "builds a house" is the evidence. This case is a "zero confession" murder case and requires indirect evidence to form a chain of evidence to conclude the case. The most difficult thing is to add new evidence to the old case that was fully investigated six years ago. This is almost an "impossible task." However, the basic responsibilities of prosecutors are to ascertain the truth, pursue crimes, and provide legal supervision. In order to live up to this responsibility, they must work tirelessly. In the end, it took three years to make the impossible possible and facilitate the change of sentence in this case.

(The author is Guo Zhumei, the lead prosecutor and second-level senior prosecutor of the Second Procuratorate of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate)

Source: Procuratorate Daily · News Edition