Recently, after the Supreme People's Procuratorate approved the prosecution and the court ruled that the defendant Zhuang Moujia was taken to prison for execution in accordance with the law, marking that the dust has finally settled on the approved prosecution of intentional homicide more than 20 years after the case.
On March 17 this year, the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court ruled to reject Zhuang Moujia's appeal, upheld the original verdict in accordance with law, and sentenced Zhuang Moujia to death with a two-year reprieve, deprivation of political rights for life, and restrictions on commutation. After learning of the verdict, Wang Hua, the chief prosecutor of the Chengdu Municipal Procuratorate, breathed a sigh of relief, and his mood could not be calmed down for a long time: "Now I can finally give a satisfactory explanation to the victim's family." ”
The unsolved case was solved after 23 years
"Come on, someone, kill someone, kill someone!" At noon on September 12, 1997, a scream suddenly rang out from the electrician room of a state-owned factory in Chengdu. Soon, the news of the murder of a female worker, Chen, in the factory spread rapidly.
After receiving the alarm, the public security organs immediately rushed to the scene and found Chen lying naked in the reservoir outside the electrician's room, so they immediately extracted relevant physical evidence at the scene and biological traces in Chen's body. After investigation and identification, Chen was strangled and killed and then thrown into the pool, semen was found in his body, and the time of death was about 2 o'clock in the morning of the same day.
For a long time after the incident, the local people and the workers of the surrounding factories were panicked, the female workers did not dare to walk at night or work night shifts, the nearby commercial streets were closed early, and even rumors appeared that the victim was killed because of an improper relationship between a man and a woman. Chen's mother went blind all day long with tears, and Chen's husband repeatedly asked to find out the truth, solve the case as soon as possible, and bring the murderer to justice.
Over the years, the public security organs have never given up the pursuit of the real culprit, but due to the lack of clues left at the crime scene and the limited criminal investigation technology at that time, the case has not been solved.
It was not until 23 years later, with the development of criminal detection technology, that the investigation of this unsolved case took a major turn. In November 2020, the public security organs conducted a DNA-Y chromosome test on the biological traces of the victim's body that had been properly kept, and conducted a big data DNA genotyping comparison, and determined that the male close relatives of Zhuang (female), a drug addict in Chengdu, had the same DNA-Y origin.
The police immediately conducted an investigation, and then sent blood samples from Zhuang's elder brother and two younger brothers for testing. After examination, the DNA detected from the biological traces in the victim Chen's body was the same as the DNA genotype of Zhuang's two younger brothers, Zhuang X A and Zhuang X B.
Through DNA identification, it can basically be identified that Zhuang X A and Zhuang X B are suspected of major crimes. Why do you lock two people at once? It turned out that Zhuang X A and Zhuang X B were identical twins, and it was repeatedly confirmed that identical twins had the same DNA genotype. However, current technology cannot further distinguish the DNA of identical twins, and it is impossible to directly identify the murderer.
"After further investigation, it was found that during the incident, Zhuang Mou A worked in the factory involved in the case and had all the conditions to commit the crime, while Zhuang Mou B worked in a private factory. From this, it can be determined that Zhuang Moujia's crime is more suspected. Zhang Guo, a public security policeman, said.
On November 25, 2020, Zhuang Moujia was arrested by the police. On December 9 of the same year, Zhuang Moujia was arrested by the procuratorate on suspicion of intentional homicide.
Reconstruct the evidence system beyond reasonable doubt
After the murder case was cracked, the Chengdu Municipal Procuratorate immediately assigned an experienced prosecutor to form a case-handling team to intervene in accordance with the law, and guided the public security organs to continue the investigation around the collection of objective evidence.
After Zhuang X A was arrested, he confessed that he returned to the factory after drinking alcohol on the night of September 11, 1997, and was discovered by Chen, who was on night duty. Because he was afraid that Chen would run out to call someone and that he would be fired after the factory found out, Zhuang Moujia chased after him and choked Chen's neck for more than 10 minutes, causing his death, and then dumped his body in the pool outside the electrician's room.
On March 16, 2021, the public security organs reported to the procuratorate for approval of the prosecution of Zhuang Moujia.
"The new Criminal Procedure Law has adjusted the procedural norms for the collection of many evidences, and the criteria for judging the admissibility of evidence have also changed, requiring us to reconstruct the evidence system in accordance with the current standards for criminal homicide accusations and prosecutions, so as to eliminate reasonable doubt that Zhuang Mou B participated in the crime, and ensure that the facts of Zhuang Mou A's crime are clear and the evidence is credible and sufficient." Wang Hua told reporters.
In order to eliminate reasonable suspicion that Zhuang X B committed the crime, the Chengdu Municipal Procuratorate's case-handling team reorganized the evidence by comprehensively reviewing the original file of the year, analyzing objective physical evidence, reshaping the layout of the scene at the time of the crime, and listening to the introduction of the case, and continued to collect evidence around the motives and time and space conditions of Zhuang X A and Zhuang X B.
The procuratorate's review found that although the scene of the crime had been demolished, Zhuang Moujia's confession of many details and hidden circumstances such as the layout outside the scene of the crime, the way of entering the room where the crime occurred, the layout of the room where the crime occurred, the furnishings of items, the method of killing, the location of the pool where the body was dumped and the characteristics of the pool, the situation of the items in the pool, the victim's back injuries and abdominal scars, and many other details and concealed circumstances can be mutually corroborated with the evidence in the case. At the same time, the investigation showed that although Zhuang A and Zhuang B were twins, they usually did not have a close relationship, and there were few contacts and not much communication. Combined with the fact that this case is a serious crime case that may be sentenced to death, judging from common sense, Zhuang X A lacks the reason and motive to commit the crime for Zhuang X B. The relatives of the two also said that Zhuang Mouyi had never entered the factory where the crime occurred.
"Based on the results of these reviews, although the test results of Zhuang X A and Zhuang X B with the same genotype cannot be further distinguished under the existing scientific and technological conditions, the comprehensive evidence of the whole case can basically rule out reasonable doubt that Zhuang X B committed the crime." Wang Hua said.
In addition, during the interrogation, Zhuang Moujia confessed to the basic facts of his crime of killing Chen, but he always denied that he had sex with Chen. In this regard, the prosecutor handling the case believes that the biological traces in the victim's body were found to have a genotype consistent with Zhuang Moujia's DNA, and Zhuang Moujia's defense is obviously inconsistent with the facts proved by objective evidence, but the existing evidence cannot further determine whether the relevant sexual acts occurred against the victim's will.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate approved the prosecution
Since the maximum period of 20 years for prosecution stipulated in the Criminal Law has expired, is there still a need for prosecution? Under the overall guidance of the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate, case-handling personnel from the provincial, municipal and district procuratorates visited the scene many times, visited witnesses on the spot, and solicited the opinions of the people around the scene of the crime, focusing on whether the social impact was eliminated and the necessity of prosecution.
"We listened to the opinions of the victim's family, the former employees of the factory, the surrounding people, and the staff of the neighborhood committee of the community where the crime occurred, and all of them demanded that the murderer be severely punished, which shows that the social harm and impact of this case have not been eliminated." Wang Hua introduced. In addition, the case was discussed at several joint departmental meetings, as well as by the procuratorial committees of the Sichuan and Chengdu procuratorates twice, and it was found that the facts of Zhuang Moujia's intentional homicide were clear, the evidence was credible and sufficient, and it was indeed necessary to prosecute. The Chengdu Municipal Procuratorate then decided to report to the Supreme People's Procuratorate for approval of prosecution.
On May 11, 2023, after review, the Supreme People's Procuratorate decided to approve the prosecution of Zhuang Moujia in accordance with the law, and the Chengdu Municipal Procuratorate filed a public prosecution with the Chengdu Intermediate Court.
On May 24, 2023, the Chengdu Municipal Procuratorate filed a public prosecution on the case. On September 22 of the same year, the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court, after trial, adopted the Chengdu Municipal Procuratorate's accusation opinion in accordance with the law, and sentenced Zhuang Moujia to death for intentional homicide, with a two-year reprieve, deprivation of political rights for life, and restrictions on commutation. After the first-instance judgment, Zhuang Moujia appealed. On March 17 this year, the Sichuan Provincial High Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original verdict.
After Zhuang Moujia was imprisoned and executed in accordance with the law, Wang Hua immediately contacted Chen's husband to inform him of the outcome of the case. "Thanks to the procuratorate for approving the prosecution of the murderer in accordance with the law, the stone that has been backlogged in my heart for more than 20 years has finally fallen." Chen's husband said.
[Source: Procuratorate Daily News Edition Author: Zha Hongnan Li Bin]