Opinion | No sign of change in China’s deeply flawed criminal justice system

Cary Huang says instances of miscarriage of justice, as highlighted by the exonerations of two wrongly executed young men, reveal the price paid by the people for the hubris of officials

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Serial killer Zhao Zhihong is escorted to stand trial for murder, rape, robbery and larceny at the Intermediate People's Court in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on February 9, 2015. Zhao, 42, who was sentenced to death, was apprehended in 2005 and confessed to a string of rapes and murders, including one pinned on 18-year-old Huugjilt, who was wrongly executed for the crime. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 3:06pm, 14 Dec 2016Updated: 7:13pm, 14 Dec 2016

A critical difference in the tenet of criminal proceedings between the rule of law and absolute government is that the former might prefer having a fugitive rather than a miscarriage of justice, whereas the latter would rather produce injustice than a fugitive.

China’s record conviction rate of more than 99.9 per cent last year helps explain why its criminal justice system has produced so many misjudgments.

Early this month, the Supreme People’s Court declared that Nie Shubin, a 21-year-old from Hebei who was executed in 1995 for rape and murder, was innocent. His family had begun to seek redressal only when another man, Wang Shujin, admitted in 2005 to committing the crimes.

For still too many, the road to justice is long in China

The tragedy for Nie’s family is that the wounds can never be healed or lost life recovered. Nie, who would have been 42 this year, was blamed for 21 years for a crime he didn’t commit. The government did not notify his parents of the execution. His father tried to commit suicide, and his mother has been fighting to prove his innocence.

Nie Shubin’s mother weeps at his grave in Niezhuang village, on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Man executed for rape, murder 21 years ago cleared by China’s highest court

But the bigger tragedy for the country is that its courts remain institutions that breed injustice. In many ways, their actions still resemble those of the imperial courts, which Judge Bao Zheng sought to reform in the Song dynasty.

Nie’s case once again turned the spotlight on the criminal justice system, and raised a big question about the Communist Party’s claims of reforms to uphold justice.

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