Exonerated 21 years after his execution

More than two decades after his execution, Nie Shubin was declared innocent. In 1995, a twenty-year-old boy was proven guilty for the murder and rape of a woman in Shijiazhuang, in the Hebei province. He was killed by firing squad. The Supreme Court ruled that this execution was a mistake ten years after a serial killer admitted to having carried out the crime. 

The investigation did not obtain enough objective evidence. This case was not a first. In 2014, eighteen years after his execution, a young man from Inner-Mongolia was also cleared of rape and murder. In China, courts have a conviction rate of nearly 99,92 %. The number of executions is always secret, but many people are executed because of false or extorted confessions. Chinese justice today is better than it was in 1979, however thousands of prisoners are jailed for their political opinions.

Magali