The Chen Ruiwu Murder Case

• Author: Wang Mengjie

At the end of 1995, the families of Yang Changlin and Liu Decheng, residents of Hebei Province Bazhou City, were murdered. Altogether 6 people were killed. At the end of 2003, the 7 defendants in this case were sentenced in the first instance by the Langfang Municipality Intermediate People’s Court. Amongst the defendants, Chen Ruiwu, Shang Zhihong, Yang Hongyi and “the principal offender” Yuan Weidong were sentenced to death for murder.

The 7 defenders appealed. The Hebei High Court remanded the case to the first instance court for retrial based on the reason that the facts of the case were unclear. After retrial by the Langfang Intermediate People’s Court in June 2004, the death sentences of Chen Ruiwu, Yuan Weidong and one other defendant were reaffirmed, whereas Shang Zhihong’s death sentence was stayed with a two-year reprieve, Yang Hongyi’s sentence was changed to life imprisonment, and the other 2 defendants were held to be innocent.

The 5 defendants who were held guilty appealed further. In 2006, the Hebei High Court again remanded the case to the Langfang Intermediate People’s Court for retrial. In 2008, the Langfang Intermediate People’s Court upheld its earlier judgment. Finally in May 2009, the Heibei High Court heard the appeal directly and in November that year, the Court overruled the lower court’s judgment, finding Chen Ruiwu, Shang Zhihong and Yang Hongyi innocent.

However, since then the Langfang...