BEIJING: Procuratorates nationwide filed 7,876 protests against criminal judgments deemed erroneous last year to ensure justice and the fairness of the judiciary, the top procuratorate stated in its annual work report.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s Work Report for 2023, approved by the National People’s Congress on March 11, said that 79.9 percent of the protested criminal judgments were changed after review.
In one case mentioned in the report, a man named Chen Cang, along with others, broke into a residence to commit theft in April 1997.A woman sleeping in the house woke up, and fearing detection, Chen repeatedly struck her head and face with a hammer, killing her. He then strangled her son to death and fled the scene with valuables.
In June 2014, when Chen was detained for another theft-related crime, police matched his fingerprints with those extracted from the first crime. Despite initially confessing to the 1997 crime, Chen later recanted multiple times. He was prosecuted in June 2015 and sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court of Hengshui, Hebei province, in March 2016. Chen appealed, and in December 2018, the Higher People’s Court of Hebei Province acquitted him of all charges.
The Hebei Provincial Procuratorate appealed the ruling. In April 2021, the Supreme People’s Court instructed the Higher People’s Court of Shandong Province to retry the case. In January 2024, the Shandong court sentenced Chen to death with a reprieve.
Yang Jianbo, deputy director of the SPP’s general office, emphasized that procurators should not only pursue criminals but also protect the innocent. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
