College student executed for deadly stabbing

A 21-year-old college student who hit a young mother with his car and then stabbed her to death to avoid paying compensation was executed yesterday morning in Xian, Shaanxi province, amid lingering public anger over the killing.

Yao Jiaxin, a well-off undergraduate at the Xian Conservatory of Music, was sentenced to death by the Xian Intermediate People's Court on April 22 for murdering struggling waitress Zhang Miao, 26, in a hit-and-run accident in October. The Shaanxi High People's Court upheld the death sentence last month, and the Supreme People's Court approved the death penalty within the last few days.

In a TV interview in November, Yao tried to justify his actions by saying he stabbed the woman because she was trying to write down his car plate number, and he feared 'it would be particularly hard to get along with rural people' if he was caught. He also said he feared that the woman would harass his family for compensation.

During the trial, Yao's lawyer, Lu Gang, attributed the killing to intense emotion and fear, comments that helped fuel strong public indignation nationwide.

The intermediate court rejected that defence, saying Yao was simply trying to avoid responsibility for his action by stabbing the woman in her chest, abdomen and back several times until she died.

In its verdict, the court said, 'Yao Jiaxin murdered the woman to prevent divulgence of the hit-and-run accident; it can't be attributed to 'intense emotion' ... Yao's motive was extremely despicable, the measures extremely cruel and the consequences extremely serious.'