ray krone was lucky by this guys standards Original Article Deadly consequences if justice fails Dwight DanielsChina Daily Updated: 2005-06-23 05:53 Since the day 15 years ago when Teng Xingshan, a meat cutter in Mayang County in Central China's Hunan Province, was executed, Teng's son and daughter have lived in pain, wondering why he was taken from them. Teng was wrongfully convicted, executed for a crime he didn't commit. We know this now because the woman Teng "murdered" has suddenly resurfaced, alive and well. But it's too late for Teng. How did he become a victim of such ineptness by the justice system? Only a careful and thorough investigation will answer that question. But larger issues are at stake and also require examination. First, admissions must be made. The justice system is run by human beings. With the millions of cases heard, judges, courts and police will make errors. Another case in point made headlines a couple of months ago. She Xianglin served 11 years in prison for murder until his "victim," his wife, suddenly appeared alive and well in their hometown in Hubei Province. The former security guard was freed and is now seeking "compensation" from the government. If there is a way to adequately compensate him for 11 years of his life, the authorities will try. But what about executed people? There is no bringing them back. When Teng Xingshan died 15 years ago, he pleaded with his dying breath that he was innocent. No one listened. A tragedy was completed. Teng's troubles first started when a woman's dismembered body was found floating in a river in April 1987. She was identified as Shi Xiaorong, a local missing woman. Authorities investigating the crime targeted Teng and later testified at a trial that the murderer must have been someone experienced with a knife - someone like a meat cutter - because the techniques used to dissect the body were "very professional." As the story played out in court, Teng was supposed to have had sex with Shi and then killed her because he suspected she had stolen some of his money. In retrospect, this could have been a concoction by police and prosecutors. Yet we now know that the corpse discovered in the river wasn't Shi's. All these years later, Shi - the so-called murdered woman - is sitting in a Guizhou jail charged with drug trafficking. Shi says she didn't even know Teng, her purported "murderer." In fact, Shi had been kidnapped and sold into a marriage and was taken to Eastern China's Shandong Province at least a month before the murdered woman's body was even found. In 1993, Shi returned to her hometown in Southwest China's Guizhou Province. A year later, Teng's children first heard rumours that Shi was alive. It took them years to know for sure. They, according to media reports, have recently lodged an appeal to the Hunan Provincial High People's Court for a reinvestigation of their father's case. What all this shows is that the calls for reform still reverberating throughout China's halls of justice in the wake of the She Xianglin case are long overdue. But special care and attention must be given to death penalty cases in China, especially given that there are 68 particular crimes for which people can receive capital punishment here. Premier Wen Jiabao said at his annual national press conference in March that the nation is fully committed to the use of the death penalty. But, the premier added, China wants to ensure such sentences are "given carefully and fairly." As such, the Supreme People's Court, which relinquished its powers of final review in such cases during a crime-fighting campaign in the 1980s, is hard at work studying how to overcome concerns about inconsistencies by lower, less professionally run courts issuing sentences. Supreme court officials have said that restoring the right to review such cases could come as early as next year, and a special death penalty review tribunal may be needed to handle the new workload. It may also be time for lawmakers to review the number of crimes that merit the penalty. Much more thought and care should go into handing out sentences. (China Daily 06/23/2005 page4)