Xu Jinlong (Nong Jian/Photo)
Under the dim street lamps, large trucks drove by, and the dust raised by them was like a thick fog under the illumination of the headlights.
On the evening of December 12, 2023, 49-year-old Xu Jinlong rode a women's electric car to an appointment. The meeting place is near a local palace temple on County Road 214, Xiuyu District, Putian City, Fujian Province.
From the age of 20 to 42, Xu Jinlong spent the most precious 22 years of his life in prison.
On January 14, 1994, a 66-year-old villager in Putian City, Fujian Province, was killed in his home, and cash and rings were robbed at the scene. The first suspect identified by the police was Cai Jinsen, a local tinker, who confessed to Xu Jinlong, Xu Yusen, and Zhang Meilai from the same village.
The court of first instance sentenced Cai Jinsen to a suspended death sentence and the death sentences of the other three were carried out immediately. In 1999, the Fujian Provincial High People's Court changed the second-instance verdict to a suspended death sentence for Xu Jinlong and three others. Xu Jinlong served his sentence in Longyan and Putian prisons in Fujian Province, where he insisted on appealing and accusing the Putian police of extorting confessions by torture.
On June 27, 2013, Southern Weekly reported on the "Xu Jinlong case" for the first time, which eventually led to the Fujian Provincial Procuratorate initiating a review and the Fujian Provincial High Court initiating a retrial procedure. On February 4, 2016, the retrial began, and the court acquitted Xu Jinlong and the other four in court. Xu Jinlong received a total of about 3 million yuan in compensation from the state.
Before the 40th anniversary of Southern Weekly, when a reporter from Southern Weekly met Xu Jinlong, he was wearing a black leather jacket and greeted him before he took off his helmet. He is warm, talkative, and willing to pour out his happiness and distress. It can be seen that he has adapted to normal social life.
"Return me after reading it"
The reason why the "Xu Jinlong case" has attracted the attention of Southern Weekly is that the evidence in the verdict is weak, and the contradictions between the confessions of the perpetrators and the testimony of witnesses are difficult to explain with common sense.
For example, there was no fingerprint identification in the whole case, and only one footprint left at the scene was determined to be made by the same manufacturer as the shoes of one of the perpetrators. The police determined that the crime process was that the murderer dismantled bricks and entered the crime scene, but the wall was adobe and there were no bricks at all. The police determined that the killer entered through the second wall, but there was no door on that wall at all.
On the day of the crime identified by the police, Xu Jinlong was still on a blind date during the day, and he temporarily decided to rob and kill people at night, which is unreasonable.
All four claimed to have been tortured to extract confessions, and only Xu Jinlong was the only one who never made a confession of guilt.
However, the price is also heavy, Xu Jinlong lifted his leather jacket, his waist was thick and hard, and the symptoms of lumbar disc herniation remained to this day, and he was hospitalized twice for this in 2023 alone, and he was treated for a total of 40 days.
"The doctor told me to be treated for at least 80 days, and I only had enough money for 40 days. Xu Jinlong said that after his acquittal, he had to be hospitalized every year.
At the beginning of his imprisonment, Xu Jinlong was tortured by this problem. He could not sit or stand for long periods of time, and he was not able to perform the work in prison, which made him once labeled as "resisting reform".
Xu Jinlong, who is in prison, insists on appealing, and his family is running for him. Xu Jinlong's third brother asked around who could save Xu Jinlong, and when the villagers in Beijing heard the news, they provided the clues to the case to Southern Weekly.
On June 27, 2013, after Southern Weekly reported on the "Xu Jinlong case," the wife of the co-defendant Xu Yusen obtained a newspaper and handed it to Xu Yusen during the meeting.
Xu Yusen handed the newspaper to Xu Jinlong again, and brought a sentence, "Hurry up and read it, and return it to me as soon as you finish reading." ”
That night, Xu Jinlong was shocked by great joy, Xu Jinlong couldn't sleep, "At that time, it had been 19 years since I was arrested, and no one paid attention to so many complaint letters, and I already felt that I might die in prison in the future." Southern Weekly's report is a hope, and perhaps our only chance. ”
In October 2013, the Fujian Provincial Procuratorate initiated a review of the case. It was found that the records of key witnesses who had been identified as channels for the sale of stolen goods were forged. In March 2014, the Fujian Provincial Procuratorate submitted a procuratorial recommendation for a retrial to the Fujian Provincial High Court. On December 16, 2015, the Fujian Provincial High Court officially decided to initiate the retrial procedure.
Before the "Xu Jinlong case" was rehabilitated, Southern Weekly published a total of four reports.
A difficult choice between a loved one and a loved one
Xu Jinlong's 40th birthday was spent in prison, and he has no special memories of this year, and he doesn't even remember the saying "forty is not confused".
This year, Xu Jinlong was still troubled by two questions that had existed since he was arrested at the age of 20: How did the police target Cai Jinsen, and why did Cai Jinsen "bite" him and the other two "criminals"? These two questions are now difficult to explore.
However, after he was released from prison, he soon encountered a more difficult problem: how much can he repay for saving his life?
Xu Jinlong's third brother has been crying out for him for many years. He gave about half of the state compensation to the third brother's family, and divorced the lover he married after being released from prison.
Someone once told him that if he had to choose between his own brother who had the grace to save his life and his lover who gave birth to two children for him, there was no doubt that he should choose his own small family, because the responsibilities of the roles of father and husband are far greater than that of a younger brother. Xu Jinlong was silent after listening, picked up the beer glass and drank it all.
He originally didn't know how to drink, but after falling into the dilemma of choosing between his brother and his lover, he borrowed wine to drown his sorrows, and now he can drink half a catty of liquor, "Do you know, people in our village say I'm stupid, I spend all my money on other people's families, but I don't have the money to install windows in the house I built." ”
From the perspective of simple goodwill, Xu Jinlong's long prison life imprisoned Xu Jinlong at the age of 20 when he was arrested, he talked about brotherhood, impulsiveness, could not control his temper, and at the age of 49, he still did not have the life wisdom that a middle-aged person should have.
Before spending all the state compensation, he sold tea, wine, and sales, but each job did not last long. After going into debt, he was introduced by a friend to a factory, where he first started working and now drives. He has been working on this job for almost two years with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan, and it is also the longest job he has done since he was released from prison. The long hours of outdoor labor changed his complexion, and he finally looked like a middle-aged man.
At 11 p.m., before parting, Xu Jinlong sent his blessings to Southern Weekly: "The report of Southern Weekly is the biggest turning point for my case, and I will thank Southern Weekly for the rest of my life, and I hope that Southern Weekly will get better and better." ”
Light raindrops fell, and the night breeze was cold. Xu Jinlong rode the women's electric car, his waist couldn't bend down and stubbornly stood on the seat, and his stiff figure quickly disappeared into the thick night.
Southern Weekly reporter Zhai Xingli
Editor-in-charge: Qian Haoping