the murder suspect in court. Photos: CFP

By Lin Meilian

Friday is an important day for legal professors, online commentators and numerous anonymous netizens who are waiting eagerly to hear what punishment a murder suspect will receive. It is no ordinary case.

For weeks now, outspoken public figures have been engaged in a heated debate about whether or not to abolish the death penalty in China.

It"s been a simmering issue but many feel the debate is taking place at the wrong time and over the wrong case since the suspect has been accused of an especially heinous act.

Yao Jiaxin, 21, a music student at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music in Shaanxi Province, was charged with stabbing a woman to death moments after he struck her with his car.

The victim, Zhang Miao, 26, was taking down the car's plate number when Yao noticed it and used his knife to stab her six times on the street.

Zhang, mother of a 2-year-old boy, apparently only suffered minor injuries. But Yao, the son of a retired military official, jumped out of his Chevrolet and decided she would be "hard to deal with."

The accident, stabbing and trial have captured the attention of people on the blog sphere and beyond triggering a debate about whether Yao deserves the death penalty and if it"s time to put capital punishment in the history books.

In court, Yao's lawyer said the piano student committed a "crime of passion" for fear of the consequences.
Yao's father tried to offer the woman"s family 30,000 yuan ($4,594) but they called it "blood money" and turned it down.

During the March 23 trial, Yao's lawyer pleaded for a lenient sentence by saying Yao was a "model student." 

During the three-hour session, Yao broke down in tears as he talked about being forced to play the piano and that it drove him to consider suicide.

Li Meijin, a professor of criminal psychology at Chinese People"s Public Security University, told a CCTV interviewer that Yao's behavior was "compulsive," because he was forced to play the piano by his parents.
The public was angered. Internet users called her the "defender of a murderer" and launched a "human flesh search engine," and rallied together to discredit her.

Popular justice

The public was also angered when the local court, in a rare but not unprecedented move, asked 400 students to vote on whether Yao deserved the death penalty. The students chose to spare Yao's life.

Courts are not usually open to large crowds of people and the public believes the students were selected carefully since most of them are reportedly from Yao's college.

"I think the situation is scary. It is scarier than the night when Yao stabbed that woman," Li Chengpeng, a well-known writer, said on his blog about using the students to determine Yao's fate.

Another lawyer echoed those sentiments.

"It is not clear how it is connected to the abolition of the death penalty. I don"t know how they (defendant) could do that," said a lawyer who asked not to be named.

The discussion of the death penalty existed long before this case.

"But the judge in this case won"t be able to abolish the death penalty overnight as China is not a nation that depends on legal precedents," the lawyer said.

The lawyer, who previously wrote in an online post that Yao won"t receive the death penalty because he turned himself in, has received many harassing phone calls over his comments.

The public was further enraged after Yao and his family wept on CCTV. They feel that the broadcaster was "sympathetic with murderers."

"I understand that we should not advocate violence for violence," Li said. "But I don"t understand why CCTV provides abundant coverage to murderers."

Even though the philosophy of "a life for a life" is popular in Chinese society, some experts feel that this case could help pave the way for an end to the death penalty in China.

Liu Yuzhi, a former professor at Xi"an Jiaotong University, said he hopes China would abolish the death penalty.
"As civilization progresses, it is time to answer the question as to whether the death penalty is civilized," he said.

the victim's 30-month-old son. Photos: CFP

Call for change

Some 95 countries have abolished capital punishment and 35 have not used it for at least 10 years. Some 58 nations routinely use the death penalty including China, Iran, Iraq and several states in the US.

The number of people executed is unknown in China. 

"Life is above everything. The life of each Chinese person is so precious that no one has the right to take it away," Liu said.

He also pointed that even those given lesser punishments have been improperly convicted.

She Xianglin, a man from Hubei Province, was freed in 2005 after 11 years in prison. It turned out he was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife.

And Zhao Zuohai, a farmer in Henan Province who was convicted of a murder, was ruled innocent and freed in 2010 after 10 years in prison. He was reportedly tortured and forced to confess to killing his neighbor, who later turned up alive.

According to the law, convicted killers may be punished with a sentence of more than 10 years, life in prison or the death penalty.

However, China has a unique system that allows courts to give out a death sentence with probation. This allows the person the chance to be released after several years in prison. It is why some people want Yao be put to death immediately.

About survey: The survey was conducted jointly by the Criminal Law Science Research Center of Wuhan University and the Germany-based Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law. They interviewed 4,472 ordinary people and 455 professionals including lawyers and officials in Beijing, Hubei and Guangdong provinces between 2007 and 2008.

According to an online survey by Yahoo, 10,710 out of 11,100 surveyed Internet users want to see Yao get the death penalty while just 58 preferred a life sentence.

Li Heping, a human rights lawyer, told Phoenix Television that the National People"s Congress or the Supreme People"s Court would have to endorse any changes in the death penalty law.

"Without an official explanation, the public will find it hard to accept something that is contradictory to their belief of justice," Li said. He added that most people would prefer to see Yao get the death penalty.

China"s newly revised Criminal Law has reduced the number of crimes punishable by death by 13 to 55, a move to limit the use of the death penalty, Xinhua reported in February.

Economic-related non-violent crimes are no longer subject to the death penalty.

They include smuggling of artifacts, credit fraud, and export tax return fraud, counterfeiting tax return certificates and robbery. The amendment also prohibits people over 75 from getting the death penalty.

Internet users are not shy about expressing themselves but when they unite to share their voice on a particular legal case, it is difficult to ignore them.

The court will announce a verdict in Yao's case Friday but that is not expected to bring an end to this debate.