Justice will always accompany those criminals, and the laws of the mainland are the same, as long as anyone commits a crime, the law will give due punishment.
This is evidenced by a homicide case in Zhejiang Province that occurred 22 years ago, when two criminals were at large for 14 years after the murder, but were exposed by a clue to a cigarette butt and finally brought to justice.
In the early morning of 7 September 1999, police in Baita Town, Xianju County, Zhejiang Province, received a call from an elderly woman who had brought her grandson to the police station to report the murder of her daughter and son-in-law. The police immediately arrived at the scene, and the old man witnessed the tragic scene again, in pain.
The couple, who were in their thirties, died tragically in bed, with a severed artery in their neck and died of excessive blood loss. The property at the scene of the crime was completely looted. At the scene, the police also found the murder weapon used by the murderer: two daggers and a wooden stick stained with blood.
Based on the evidence, the police initially speculated that the murderer may be a thief. But there is a doubt about this speculation: why the murderer chose to start when the husband and wife were asleep, rather than just stealing property. According to the forensic examination, the husband and wife were killed in their deep sleep. This complicates the case.
The victims, Mr. Jiang, and his wife, Ms. Zhang, were well received in their daily lives, and they had a good relationship with those around them, basically ruling out the possibility of vendettas caused by grudges. The two have a stable marriage relationship, no affairs, and few disputes.
However, if the case was only theft, why did the murderer harm the couple while they were sleeping, but leave their children behind? This puzzling question has been puzzling police, but thankfully, there are other clues waiting to be unearthed.
Xiaohui is Mr. Jiang's son and the only survivor at the crime scene. He recalled that when the crime occurred, he noticed movement in his parents' room, so he approached to check it. He sees two uninvited guests wearing masks, but instead of hurting Xiaohui, they bind them and blindfold their eyes and mouth.
By the time Xiaohui breaks free, his parents have been brutally murdered, and the murderer has quietly left. Although the murderer wore a mask on his face, Xiaohui provided many valuable clues, such as the murderer has two people, one is about one meter six tall, and the other is more than one meter eight meters tall. The most important point is that the killer is not a local, and the accent reveals that they may be from out of town.
In addition to Xiaohui's description, the police also collected other evidence at the crime scene. They found a scabbard in a flower bed not far from the room with a piece of transparent glue attached to it.
After careful observation, the police found that there was a fingerprint clearly printed on the transparent tape, which was likely to be an important clue
In addition, the police also found a cigarette butt at the scene and extracted DNA information from the cigarette butt. With fingerprints and DNA information, police have the ability to find the killer.
But in the late 90s of the 20th century, the mainland's fingerprint database and DNA database had not yet been built, and even if there were important clues, the police could not find the murderer. In desperation, the police can only temporarily store fingerprint and DNA data in a database.
Fourteen years later, in 2013, with the improvement of the mainland's data system, most of the citizens' fingerprints and DNA were collected by the public security organs. The police inadvertently discovered that the DNA data left behind by the 1999 murder closely matched a person named Lu Pengfei in Jiang'an, Sichuan.
The investigation found that Lu Pengfei had been imprisoned many times for theft, and had been active in Jinhua, Zhejiang and Hangzhou around 2000, and was very suspected of committing crimes.
The police immediately arrested Lu Pengfei. After being arrested, Lu Pengfei confessed to the theft and murder and confessed to another suspect, Yang Jie. However, the police found something tricky: Yang Jingjie was born in the early 90s, was not yet ten years old at the time of the crime, and could not be the murderer.
Therefore, the police suspected that Lu Pengfei was lying. After in-depth investigation, the police found that Liu Feng, one of Lu Pengfei's accomplices in theft, was seriously suspected. Liu Feng was born in 1971, was 28 years old at the time of the crime, and was active with Lu Pengfei in Zhejiang and other places in the late 90s of the 20th century.
However, Liu Feng has been arrested and jailed and sentenced to 18 years for theft. Despite this, he could not escape justice. The crime of homicide is much more serious than the crime of theft and may even result in the death penalty.
Therefore, the police took Liu Feng out of prison, and after interrogation, it was finally confirmed that he was another murderer.
The two confessed that they had no intention of killing, but just wanted to steal some money. However, when they were stealing, Jiang Mouhua suddenly muttered.
The two mistakenly thought that Jiang Mouhua had woken up and found them, so they attacked first and killed Jiang Mouhua. Even Jiang Mouhua's wife Zhang Moufen was not spared.
After years of investigation, the truth of this case was finally revealed. From the homicide 22 years ago to today, it once again proves that "Skynet is restored, neglected but not missed". In the face of mainland law, criminals will have nowhere to escape.
No matter how long it takes, the law always seeks fairness and justice and pays for crimes. This case demonstrates the power of the law, as well as the police's rigorous investigative skills and unremitting pursuit spirit.
【Interpretation of the law by case】
In the process of solving this unsolved case, the police used a series of legal provisions and investigation methods. Here are some legal analyses of the case:
According to article 232 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, anyone who intentionally kills a person shall be sentenced to death, life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years. The criminals brutally killed Jiang Ronghua and his wife in this case, constituting the crime of intentional homicide.
Under current law, the principle of presumption of innocence is enjoyed by the accused until the criminal suspicion is proven. In this case, the police tracked down the two criminals based on evidence and presented evidence in court to determine their crimes.
According to article 38 of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, evidence must be collected through legal procedures, and only legally collected evidence can form the basis for conviction and sentencing.
In this case, the police collected evidence from the crime scene and related clues through legal procedures, including cigarette butts, footprints, crime tools, etc.
The murderer in this case fled for 14 years after the crime, and according to Article 78 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the period during which the criminal suspect was at large is not counted in the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution. Even 14 years after the crime, the murderer is still legally liable.
The police fully respected and protected the legitimate rights and interests of the suspects during the investigation process. According to article 50 of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, defendants' right to defense and other procedural rights shall be fully guaranteed.
In this case, the law was duly respected and enforced, and justice finally triumphed over evil. Through the legal analysis of this case, we can gain a deeper understanding of the investigation, prosecution and trial procedures of criminal cases, as well as the legal principles to be followed at different stages.