Li Xun, lawyer in the "Zhang Zhichao case" in Shandong: The person responsible for the wrongful case should bear some or all of the state compensation costs

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Cover news reporter Dai Rui

On January 26, the cover news reporter learned from the parties to the "Zhang Zhichao case" in Shandong that Zhang Zhichao and the Intermediate People's Court of Linyi City, Shandong Province, reached a state compensation agreement recently, and received a total of 3.32 million yuan in state compensation. On the same day, the "Shandong Gaofa" WeChat public account released this news at the same time.

Fifteen years ago, Zhang Zhichao, a senior at Linshu No. 2 High School, was accused of raping and killing a girl from the same school. In March 2006, the Linyi Intermediate People's Court convicted Zhang Zhichao of rape in the first instance and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The case was ordered by the Supreme People's Court to be retried in 2017, and on January 13, 2020, the Shandong Provincial High People's Court retried and changed Zhang Zhichao's innocence.

After signing the state compensation agreement, Zhang Zhichao's lawyer Li Xun said in an interview with Cover News that according to the provisions of the State Compensation Law, after the compensation obligated organ compensates for losses, it should order the staff member with intentional or gross negligence or the entrusted organization or individual to bear part or all of the compensation costs. He said that the relevant persons in Zhang Zhichao's case had intentional or gross negligence and should bear part or all of the compensation costs.

Zhang Zhichao (first from left) outside the court with his mother Ma Yuping and lawyer Li Xun (first from right) (cover news reporter Dai Rui photo)

Cover News Dialogue Interview transcript of Lawyer Lee Sunn

Cover news: Zhang Zhichao's state compensation amount of 3.32 million yuan, what do you think of this compensation amount?

Li Xun: 3.32 million yuan is a huge amount of money for ordinary people, but who wants to exchange fifteen years of youth for this so-called huge amount of money? Zhang Zhichao is currently the youngest party in the unjust case who has been rehabilitated, and I think it has broken through a gap in the state compensation law. Because when legislating, it may not be thought that the State Compensation Law does not have a special provision for minors when dealing with the wrongs of minors.

There are many laws in our country that stipulate the protection of minors, but this item is omitted from the State Compensation Law, and the amount of compensation for Zhang Zhichao is evaluated by the State Compensation Law, and I think how much money cannot make up for the most precious youth he lost.

Cover News: What are the considerations for accountability?

Li Xun: After the state compensation, we will apply for accountability, and we will study the specific accountability plan again. After Zhang Zhichao made compensation by the state, according to the provisions of the State Compensation Law, after the compensation obligated organ compensated for the losses, it should recover part or all of the compensation costs from the relevant staff.

There are several aspects of this, first of all, from the judgment record, when the adjudicators signed the verdict record in place of Zhang Zhichao and Wang Guangchao and said that they would not appeal, and I think that the personnel of the original judicial organ bear a very important responsibility for this act.

Secondly, I believe that the responsible staff should also include forensic doctors, who deliberately concealed the key physical evidence that Zhang Zhichao was not at the scene of the crime, and deliberately did not write the evidence favorable to Zhang Zhichao into the autopsy report and appraisal opinion, which also belonged to the staff with intentional or gross negligence. I believe that forensic doctors should be punished at that time, and if it constitutes a criminal offense, criminal responsibility should be pursued.

In addition, in this case, during the arrest approval stage, Zhang Zhichao made a confession of innocence to the procurator, asking the procurator to find out the facts and return his innocence. However, the procurator in charge of the case informed the criminal police brigade of Zhang Zhichao's reversal of his confession, resulting in Zhang Zhichao being forced to confess again and not daring to overturn the case. Therefore, I think that the original arrest of the procurator was a person responsible for gross negligence and did not perform the basic functions entrusted to the procurator by the State. In the dossier, we found four testimonials in Zhang Zhichao's favor. In this case, the prosecutor deliberately concealed four testimonies from witnesses who were not present at the scene, which should have been presented and cross-examined in court in accordance with the law, but the prosecutor did not present them.

In this case, as a case with a very large impact on a juvenile, the intentional or negligent acts of the staff of the relevant organs all belong to the provisions of article 16 of the State Compensation Law, and these personnel shall bear part or all of the compensation costs.

Cover News: Do you think there is any possibility of finding the real culprit in this case?

Li Xun: We feel that from the case file, there are many suspicious points in the case, and there are many suspicious people, but the investigation of relevant suspicious persons is not reflected in the file. I don't know if the local public security organs have restarted the investigation, or whether there are some clues, but I think that if the investigation organs seriously handle this case, the real culprit may still be found.

Cover News: What are your expectations for Zhang Zhichao's future life?

Li Xun: I expect Zhang Zhichao to be able to behave with dignity and seriousness.

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