Man Who Spent 11 Years on Death Row Freed and Compensated by the State

Man Who Spent 11 Years on Death Row Freed and Compensated by the State
Dec 31, 2015 By eChinacities.com

Editor’s Note: A Hunan court has granted an innocent man who spent 11 years on death row 1.27 million Yuan in compensation. The man, Zeng, had been convicted in 2004 of murdering his graduate school classmate. He was convicted along with another classmate, who turned out to be the real killer. The guilty classmate had apparently pointed the finger at Zeng, who had had a crush on the victim’s girlfriend.

Zeng Aiyun had been sentenced to death three times for murder and spent 11 years on death row until was cleared of all charges this Monday and awarded 1.27 million Yuan in compensation by the Xiangtan Intermediate People’s Court. The state also issued Zeng an apology.

 

Zeng has also applied to the Hunan High Provincial Court for further compensation. He said that he suffered severe physical and mental torture while wrongly imprisoned for more than ten years. This ruined the ideal future he may have once had. His mother has also suffered through the ordeal and now suffers from amnesia and insomnia. Zeng has asked for 2 million Yuan further compensation from the state for his and his family’s trauma.

The Murder of a Classmate

Zeng was convicted of the murder of a fellow graduate student in 2004. A student named Zhou Yuheng was murdered at Xiangtan University on October 27, 2003 in the university’s graduate school of engineering. Zhou’s body was found in on the grass outside the south tower of the engineering school. Zeng and classmate Chen Huazhang were arrested for the murder.

The Xiangtan court sentenced Zeng to death, and Chen to life in prison in September 2004. The decision was upheld during appeals in December 2005, and June 2010.

In the three trials, the verdict was that Zeng and Chen had plotted together to murder Zhou. On the evening of the murder, Chen had put sleeping pills in Zhou’s water. Zhou drank the water while working in Room 308 of the south tower of the engineering school. He began to feel drowsy from the pills. Then, Zeng came up behind him and strangled him with a cord. Chen and Zeng moved Chen’s body onto the grass outside the building.

Motivations for Murder?

Chen and Zhou were in the same tutoring section, and the professor liked Zhou better than Chen. Chen was jealous of Zhou academically, and Zeng was allegedly jealous of him romantically. Zeng had a close relationship with Zhou’s girlfriend Li. Zhou had not liked that Zeng and Li were closed, and had asked Li to stop being friends with Zeng a few weeks earlier. Chen’s jealously and Zeng’s resentment were seen as their motivations for the murder.

The Hunan Higher People’s Court had ordered a re-investigation of the case by the Xiangtan Intermediate People’s Court, even though the case had already been tried three times. Zeng’s lawyer Zhong Zhiyuan said that Zeng is not guilty, and that there is evidence that sheds doubt on the previous rulings. One key point, is that Li never appeared in court to testify in the trials. There is also little concrete evidence against Zeng in the case.

Insufficient Evidence

On July 21, 2015, the Fourth Court of Xiangtan judged that there is insufficient evidence to convict Zeng of intentional homicide. The same court found Chen guilty of intentional homicide and sentenced him to life in prison and said that he must pay the plaintiff 178,000 Yuan.

When this decision was made, Zeng, Chen, and the family of the victim all appealed. Zhong said he and Zeng appealed to get a not guilty verdict after the court declared that there was not enough evidence against him in the case. Zhong believed that Zeng should be acquitted.

On November 10, 2015, the Hunan High People’s court rejected the appeal and upheld the original decisions. Zeng applied for state compensation on November 12, 2015 and his case was filed again. By December, he was a free man.

Source: The Paper

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Keywords: China state compensation Zeng Aiyun

1 Comments

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Englteachted

Convicted based on absolutely no evidence.

Dec 31, 2015 23:26 Report Abuse