In the early morning of August 20, 2005, He Lei, a 28-year-old student studying in the United States, was sleeping soundly at his home in Indiana, and the first night he had a quarrel with his wife Chen Danlei, depressed and drunk some alcohol.
The unsuspecting He Lei did not expect that the muzzle of a black hole with a silencer had quietly pointed at the back of his head, and it was no one else who held the gun, but his wife, Chen Danlei, who was also an international student at Purdue University in the United States.
Chen Danlei and He Lei
Chen Danlei knew that once she pulled the trigger, the man in front of her was undoubtedly dead.
I don't know how long later, a faint gunshot suddenly sounded, and the bullet directly penetrated from the back of He Lei's head, and He Lei was killed on the spot.
Chen Danlei spent 7 days and 7 nights with He Lei's body, during which time she disposed of the body, and then on August 25, she used He Lei's passport to dress as a man to board the plane back to China.
On the 26th, Chen Danlei, disguised, was recognized by the airport staff when she exited the pudong airport, and she herself was controlled. Later, the US police came to find the news that He Lei was dismembered, and Chen Danlei could no longer deny it, and confessed the criminal facts of killing her husband He Lei in the United States.
The above is the case of Dr. Chen Danlei, a beautiful woman who shocked China and the United States in 2005.
Because the case is too sensational, there are still relevant articles on the Internet from time to time, although most of them are false rumors and unconfirmed gossip, but it can also be seen that the public's attention to this matter is extremely high.
Chen Danlei
Public attention to this case focuses on three main issues:
The first is Chen Danlei's motive for committing the crime, why did she kill her husband? It's a bit of a puzzling thing.
Second, Chen Danlei's crimes were extremely serious, so why was she not sentenced to death and immediately executed in the first place?
Third, the public is very concerned about Chen Danlei's release from prison, according to various gossip, some say that she has been quietly released from prison in 2019, and some say that she will be released from prison in 2021.
The above three events can actually be regarded as a follow-up to the Chen Danlei case, and this article will take the authoritative source as the basis and answer the latest situation of the case one by one to solve your doubts.
Chen Danlei confessed her motives in prison
On September 4, 2006, Chen Danlei was sentenced to death by the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court for intentional homicide, suspended for two years, and Chen Danlei began her imprisonment.
Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court
In 2017, CCTV's "Psychological Interview" column sent someone to Chengdu Women's Prison where Chen Danlei was serving a sentence to conduct an interview and produced a program based on this interview.
In this episode, Chen Danlei told the camera about her criminal motives at that time, which was the first and only time she told the public about the reasons for killing her husband.
Let's first take a look at Chen Danlei's self-statement.
...... I especially don't like to hang out, I like to stay in the house, I hope he can spend more time with me in the house.
...... Denying me that it was worthless, he said you go to see for yourself, there are so many international students here, how people are wives, you are the worst one in it.
...... 100 others said I was good, not as good as 1 person said I was good, so that I could be happy. I don't think I look very good, so why like me, he said in a word: you are cute! I actually don't think I'm cute at all.
From the above Chen Danlei's account, it can be seen that she herself has a serious sense of inferiority and is extremely unconfident in her relationship with He Lei.
She knows that she is not very beautiful and her personality is not very good, so she is extremely troubled about why He Lei is with her, always wants to find the reason why her husband "likes" herself, and is eager to prove that he "likes" himself through his constant praise.
This state of mind can be summed up in four words- suffering from gain and loss.
Chen Danlei in prison
This situation is actually common in many people, but it is a fatal thing to change to Chen Danlei, because her personality factor has a strong extremity and destructive tendency.
Below is her self-description of her killing of her husband.
...... I decided to marry him, and I thought, that life is like this, don't think about separation, divorce and other things.
...... Divorced, he will certainly be happy to find another person, but I may end up depressed. I could only be alone for the rest of my life, miserable for a lifetime, and then die alone.
Then I thought, it is better to die late than to die early, long pain is not as good as short pain, and now I will end him. I couldn't find a better way to save myself, and that's what I thought at the time.
...... He would have killed me anyway, or the two of us would have died together.
Chen Danlei's self-statement above has actually made the reason for her killing her husband very clear: after the divorce, he can go and find another one, but I will have a very painful life, so it is better to kill him, a hundred.
What a horrifying and extreme idea.
Chen Danlei was interviewed by the "Psychological Interview" column
In the interview, Chen Danlei also revealed a little-known detail.
At 6 o'clock in the morning of the crime, Chen Danlei, who had not slept all night, woke Up He Lei and said: "You hurry up, what should we do, you must explain clearly!" ”
He Lei was still immersed in sleep, and couldn't help but complain: "Alas, are you bothered?" Then he slept on one side again.
From Chen Danlei's self-description, we can see that her character needs her husband to constantly praise and express his attention to her, so that she can get a sense of security and satisfaction. And He Lei's impatient answer was obviously not what Chen Danlei expected, we don't know what Chen Danlei thought at that time, but the next consequence is obvious - He Lei was shot dead.
In fact, judging from the fact that Chen Danlei had prepared the gun in advance, she had already premeditated to kill He Lei, and if she didn't get it, she would have to completely destroy it, which was how selfish and self-interested, and at the same time objectively proved that her personality factor had a strong destructive tendency.
Why was Chen Danlei not sentenced to death and immediately executed?
Chen Danlei's actions all proved that she was an extremely dangerous person, but she was only sentenced to death suspended in the end, why is this?
Chen Danlei described herself as a motive for the crime
I was also extremely curious about this issue personally, and after checking a lot of information about this case at that time, I learned the reason.
In 2006, when the procuratorate indicted Chen Danlei's intentional homicide case, the prosecution argued that Chen Danlei had dismembered and dismembered He Lei.
In general, the act of dismemberment, if carried out by a murderer, is not legally evaluated separately. However, because of the particularly cruel and heinous nature of such acts, such acts are taken into account in the sentencing, and the result is usually the imposition of the death penalty on the murderer and its immediate execution, with few exceptions.
At that time, the public prosecution pointed out that Chen Danlei had split the body, but Chen Danlei always denied this matter.
In her confession, Chen Danlei said that she was chatting on the Internet and found a person named "Jack" to help her dismember the body of He Lei. However, after investigation by the US police, the person named "Jack" was not found. In other words, this person may exist, or it may be a fictional character invented by Chen Danlei in order to exonerate himself.
So does this person really exist?
Answer: I don't know.
Chen Danlei's case has a strong particularity, it involves the police of China and the United States, and the procedure is quite complicated.
Chen Danlei committed the crime in the United States, first of all, the relevant materials of the case need to be provided by the US police, then these materials need to be approved by the Chinese consulate, and then the original is sent to China, and then translated by the lawyer according to the specified procedures to have legal effect.
Therefore, at the time of trial, whether the court or the prosecution and defense have most of the case materials sent by the United States, everyone can only carry out legal activities such as public prosecution, defense and judgment according to these materials in accordance with the law.
Among the materials submitted by the US police, no conclusive evidence was provided on whether Chen Danlei was dismembered. Due to insufficient evidence, the Shanghai First People's Court could not determine whether Chen Danlei was dismembered, so this item was ultimately not taken into account in sentencing, which was also the key reason for Chen Danlei's suspended death sentence.
In fact, with the investigation technology of the US police, it is not difficult to find evidence of Chen Danlei's body or not, but it takes a lot of police force to search.
However, the situation at that time was that Chen Danlei was in China, and the trial was also in China, and for the US police, as long as they gave the materials to the Chinese side, they would be finished, and in this case, it was indeed difficult for them to dispatch a large number of police forces to find out the whole truth.
Therefore, the situation of the dismemberment of the body in Chen Danlei's case is vague, and this pot really has to be counted on the head of the US police.
When exactly will Chen Danlei be released from prison?
Regarding Chen Danlei's release from prison, there is any news on the Internet, I looked at it, most of them are in the clouds, and none of the news is correct.
According to authoritative sources, Chen Danlei changed from a suspended death sentence to life imprisonment in January 2009.
She has since undergone a total of 5 commutations.
In 2011, the sentence was commuted from life imprisonment to 19 years;
In 2013, the sentence was reduced by 1 year and 2 months;
In 2015, the sentence was reduced by 1 year and 6 months;
In 2016, the sentence was reduced by 1 year and 6 months;
In 2019, the sentence was reduced by 7 months.
After the last commutation in 2019, Chen Danlei's sentence was reduced to November 29, 2025, and if Chen Danlei's sentence did not change later, then the end of 2025 would be the day she was released from prison.
It's still about 3 years away.
In the 2019 Criminal Ruling on Chen Danlei's commutation, the red box contained the length of her sentence after the commutation
According to Chen Danlei, after she was released from prison, she hoped to work as a translator and start a new life.
It is hoped that when Chen Danlei is released from prison, the relevant professional committee will conduct a comprehensive review and assessment of her psychological condition and whether she still has social harm. Although Chen Danlei personally expressed her willingness to change her mind and become a new person, if such a serious offender is to be put into society, she should still be cautious, at least to ensure that she will not commit any more crimes in the future.
Whether a person has potential social harm, it has nothing to do with gender, let alone education, and carefully assessing everything about Chen Danlei is the perfect strategy for being responsible for social security.
References & Literature:
"Female Doctor Inside the High Wall", CCTV", 2017;
The Debate of Life and Death, Xinmin Evening News, 2007;
Chen Danlei's criminal rulings over the years, China Judgment Documents Network.