"Why did I defend Wu Xieyu?"

The place where the "mother-killing case" occurred

As soon as the National Day holiday ended, Xu Xin, a well-known criminal defense lawyer, mailed to the Fujian Provincial High People's Court the formalities for his second-instance defense lawyer, Wu Xieyu, the defendant in the "Mother Killing Case." Xu Xin believes that choosing to defend Wu Xieyu has nothing to do with life and death, good and evil. Those who "have more than enough to die" should feel "procedural justice" even more.

He has had many discussions with his peers

Although Mr. Xu Xin is not tall, he feels full of energy, he speaks extremely quickly, and his defense words in the courtroom are sharp. For the defense of Wu Xieyu, Xu Xin considered it for a long time, and discussed it with his peers.

Peers advised him not to "wade through this muddy water" because Wu Xieyu's "mother-killing case" was contrary to human morality, and public opinion had shown a one-sided tendency to evaluate him.

In previous years, Xu Xin frequently appeared in the media field, and he participated in many well-known cases, such as the "Tianjin Shooting Stall Old Lady Gun Case" in 2017, Xu Xin and Lawyer Si Weijiang defended the "Tianjin Old Lady" Zhao Chunhua. In the end, Zhao Chunhua, who was convicted of illegal possession of firearms in the first instance and sentenced to three years and six months in prison, was sentenced to three years in prison in the second instance, suspended for three years, and the "old lady of Tianjin" was released in court.

In 2018, Xu Xin defended the Shenzhen "parrot case". Wang Peng, who sold his captive-bred parrots to a friend, was sentenced to five years in prison for illegally selling rare and endangered wild animals in the first instance, and under Xu Xin's defense, the court commuted Wang Peng's sentence to two years' imprisonment in the second instance. Subsequently, Wang Peng, who had been detained for nearly two years, returned home to reunite with his wife and children.

In both cases, Xu Xin defended the defendants' innocence.

Wu Xieyu took the initiative to contact Xu Xin

Xu Xin has sorted out many major cases handled in recent years and written books such as "Defense of Innocence", "Poetic Justice", and "Defense for Entrepreneurs". And the book "Defense of Innocence" links him to the "demon" Wu Xieyu.

Xu Xin introduced that when Wu Xieyu was in custody, he got the "Innocent Defense" from his fellow prisoners, so he wrote a letter asking Xu Xin to defend him. In the letter, Wu Xieyu also talked about his experience in connection with the cases in the book, and expressed his desire to survive and repent for the rest of his life.

After Xu Xin received Wu Xieyu's case, just as he feared, the voice of doubt began to appear. After all, Wu Xieyu is not only a "bad person", but also his behavior is contrary to common sense, according to the traditional Chinese view, such a person is "not enough to cut a thousand knives is not enough to make the people angry."

In this regard, Xu Xin is also mentally prepared, he told the Beijing Youth Daily reporter that many netizens want to uncover the causes of the tragedy of the mother-killing, and hope that Wu Xieyu's procedural rights can be fully guaranteed before assuming the ultimate responsibility for this tragedy. This is also the main reason why Xu Xin decided to defend Wu Xieyu. He personally believes that the Wu Xieyu case has a certain significance. The Wu Xieyu case not only involves life and death, but also helps to think about human nature and reflect on education and social issues.

Xu Xin told the Beiqing Daily reporter that Wu Xieyu himself wrote some self-report materials, as well as letters to lawyers and relevant personnel, and he would follow up in accordance with his own wishes and the progress of the case. He believes that these reflections require the participation of the whole society, not limited to the parties to the case and the defense lawyers.

Xu Xin believes that in addition to the three parties of the prosecution and defense to promote public reflection on the causes of the tragedy, Xu Xin believes that no matter how evil the public opinion believes, they have the right to be defended by lawyers and get a fair trial. "I hope that by defending Wu Xieyu, I will once again reaffirm to the society this basic concept of the rule of law for human rights protection."

In response to a question about why he defended the "bad guys," Xu mentioned the idea of "procedural justice." He said that procedural justice is the guarantee of substantive justice, and only by defending the "bad guys" can we better do justice for the "good guys", and legal workers should not distinguish between "good guys" and "bad guys". The final judgment must meet the standard of clear facts of the crime and sufficient evidence. "Even if Wu Xieyu is not mentally ill, even if he is really guilty of a heinous crime, there is still a need to obtain a lawyer to defend him and protect his procedural rights."

Peer voices

The study of major and difficult cases has certain social significance

As for the statement of "procedural justice", Wu Danhong, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law and a well-known criminal defense lawyer, also mentioned it in an interview with the Beiqing Daily reporter.

Wu Danhong, who was once the defense lawyer in the case of "murderous female demon leader" Lao Rongzhi, told the Beiqing Daily reporter that after Lao Rongzhi was arrested, Lao Rongzhi's second brother found him and hoped that he could defend his sister. Like Xu Xin, he also thought about it for several days, and finally decided to accept it.

Wu Danhong explained that personally, as a criminal defense lawyer, he has the enthusiasm to pay attention to such a major case, which is not the curiosity of ordinary people, but hopes to learn more about the truth behind the case. Because he is also the director of the Research Center for Difficult Evidence of China University of Political Science and Law, the Lao Rongzhi case is a good research topic for major and difficult cases, and this case also has a certain exemplary role and social significance for the development of the legal system.

However, after signing the entrustment agreement, Wu Danhong has not yet met Lao Rongzhi himself, and when he went to Jiangxi to meet with Lao Rongzhi, he did not get a reply at first, and was told a day later that Lao Rongzhi had accepted the legal aid lawyer's defense commission.

This group of articles / reporter Zhang Ziyuan coordinator / Bai Long

Photo courtesy of Visual China