On December 31, 2021, the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court publicly pronounced a verdict on the retrial of the original defendant Zhang Zhijun's intentional homicide, sentencing Zhang Zhijun to death for intentional homicide and depriving him of his political rights for life.
After trial, it was ascertained that in June 2013, Zhang Zhijun's daughter Zhang was married to the victim, Zou. In July 2017, during Zhang's pregnancy, the two families and parents were unhappy due to trivial matters in life, and the contradictions continued to deepen. Since October 2017, Zou and Zhang have left home to live in a rented house after arguing. On January 9, 2019, Zou's parents came to Chengdu from other provinces to spend the Spring Festival with their son and visit their granddaughter. The next day, Zou and his parents came to the house and had a dispute with Zhang Zhijun and Yao because of the child's problem, and Zhang Zhijun stabbed Zou with a knife, causing Zou and his mother to die on the spot. Zou's father was sent to the hospital for rescue and died the next day. After Zhang Zhijun committed the crime, he notified Zhang to call the police on 110 and 120 for emergency treatment. After receiving the report, the police took Zhang Zhijun away from the scene for investigation.
The Sichuan Provincial High People's Court held that the defendant in the original trial, Zhang Zhijun, could not correctly handle his daughter's family dispute, and the killing of Zou's three people constituted the crime of intentional homicide. Zhang Zhijun's criminal methods were cruel, the circumstances were heinous, the consequences were particularly serious, and the crimes he committed were extremely serious and should be punished according to law. Although Zhang Zhijun surrendered voluntarily, it was not enough to give him a lenient punishment, so he changed zhang Zhijun's death sentence according to law.
Zhang Zhijun's death sentence will be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for approval in accordance with law.
Previously reported
In January 2019, Yang Moufen and her husband Zou Mouhai took a train from Gongzhuling City, Jilin Province, to Pengzhou, Sichuan Province, more than 2,600 kilometers away, to prepare for the New Year with their son who settled there.
The couple probably didn't even know that their lives and those of their son were buried there. The person who killed their family of three was Zhang Zhijun, the father-in-law of his son Zou Shu (pseudonym).
Three victims | profile pictures
After Zhang Zhijun was sentenced to death in the first instance, he appealed, and the second instance sentence was changed to a suspended death sentence.
After learning of this news, the relatives of Yang Moufen and his wife in the northeast were difficult to accept, and they had submitted an application for a counter-prosecution to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
In the reasons for changing the judgment, the court of second instance mentioned that "the victim unexpectedly snatched the child, Zhang Zhijun dissuaded the perpetrator of a crime of passion in order to protect the interests and safety of himself and his relatives when the dissuasion was ineffective, and the victim was directly responsible for the intensification of the contradiction" "Zhang Zhijun did have statutory and discretionary mitigating circumstances such as voluntary surrender, voluntary confession of guilt, and forgiveness of the victim's relatives". According to them, the letter of understanding was issued by Zou Shu's wife Zhang Yu (pseudonym) and her daughter (Zhang Yu on behalf of her). In the second instance of the case, the prosecution pointed out that the letter of understanding was essentially "to help his father intercede" and did not obtain the forgiveness of the relatives of Zou Mouhai and Yang Moufen.
On April 12, the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court responded that it was seriously evaluating the case in accordance with the law and would earnestly enforce justice, safeguard justice, accept supervision, and respond to concerns.
On April 30, the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court issued a circular through its official WeChat public account saying that it had decided to initiate trial supervision procedures for Zhang Zhijun's intentional homicide case in accordance with the law, and would strictly follow the principle of taking the facts as the criterion and openly try it in accordance with the law.
On August 20, the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court held a retrial to hear the case, but did not pronounce the verdict in court.
According to the victim's relatives, the defendant Zhang Zhijun appeared in court by video on the same day, and he denied that he was intentionally killing people, but belonged to legitimate defense and "passionate killing". "Deep apologies" were also expressed to the relatives of the injured party who appeared in court.
On the morning of December 31, the Sichuan Provincial High Court pronounced a verdict on the case, and defendant Zhang Zhijun was sentenced to death and deprived of political rights for life. Three close relatives and lawyers of Mr. and Mrs. Zou Mouhai appeared in court.
In an interview with the media, the victim's family said: "Finally look forward to a just trial."
Comprehensive | @ Sichuan High Court, Jimu News
Source: Beijing Youth Daily