A 10-year-old girl in Lingshan, Guangxi Province, disappeared on the way to sell passion fruit, and the man Yang Guangyi was sentenced to death by the court at first instance on July 12, 2019 for rape, and the court found that after Yang Guangyi raped the girl, he pierced his eyeball and killed her, and at the same time took away the 32 yuan of the girl's income from selling passion fruit.
On April 7, 2020, the Guangxi Higher People's Court's second-instance trial commuted Yang Guangyi's sentence to "a two-year suspension of execution" on the grounds that Yang Guangyi had surrendered voluntarily. According to the judgment, the Guangxi Higher People's Court held that "the facts of the case ascertained by the court of first instance are clear, the evidence is credible and sufficient, the conviction is accurate, and the law is applied correctly", but because Yang Guangyi's voluntary surrender and other circumstances were not taken into account, the sentence was improperly imposed, so the above-mentioned revision of the judgment was made.
The result of the change of judgment in this case has aroused heated discussion a few days ago. On May 10, the Supreme People's Court decided to conduct a review of the final judgment in the case. On May 11, the girl's family filed a complaint with the Guangxi Higher People's Court.
The passion fruit girl was killed, the murderer was suspended in the second trial, and the family filed a complaint. Produced by the Social News Department of the Beijing News
Photo of Yang Xiaoyan before she was killed. Courtesy of respondents
Guangxi's 10-year-old "passion fruit" girl was raped and killed, and the murderer was sentenced to death in the first instance
According to a previous report by the Beijing News, on October 4, 2018, a 10-year-old girl in Lingshan, Guangxi Province, went to a nearby neighbor's house to sell passion fruit and disappeared. The Lingshan County Public Security Bureau reported on October 6 that criminal suspect Yang Guangyi confessed that on October 4 of the same year, he raped and killed Yang Xiaoyan, a 10-year-old girl from the same village, in Pingxin Village, Berau Town, Lingshan County.
On July 12, 2019, the court sentenced Yang Guangyi to death for rape in the first instance. According to the verdict, on October 4, 2018, Yang Xiaoyan returned home after selling passion fruit, and when she walked to the bamboo bush, she was carried by Yang Guangyi to the sand ridge and raped and killed. In the meantime, Yang Xiaoyan resisted and cried loudly, and Yang Guangyi stopped Yang Xiaoyan from crying by pinching her neck, piercing her eyes, and cutting her throat.
After committing adultery against Yang Xiaoyan, Yang Guangyi stuffed Yang Xiaoyan into a snakeskin bag and took away 32 yuan of Yang Xiaoyan's income from selling passion fruit. After that, he took the snakeskin bag down the sand ridge and soaked it in a puddle, and then moved it to a nearby hillside to abandon it. According to the forensic medical appraisal, Yang Xiaoyan died due to the regurgitation of gastric contents into the trachea and bronchi during the process of being raped and injured by others, causing trachea and bronchial caulking to cause mechanical asphyxia.
On October 6, 2018, Yang Guangyi, accompanied by his father, surrendered himself to the public security organs. On the 12th, he was arrested.
The court held in the first instance that the defendant Yang Guangyi raped a young girl with violent behavior, causing her death, and that the motive for the crime was extremely despicable, the means were extremely cruel, and the circumstances were extremely bad. Accordingly, the defendant Yang Guangyi was sentenced to death for rape in the first instance and deprived of his political rights for life.
Yang Guangyi appealed, saying that there was no subjective intention to kill people at the time of the crime, that he may be mentally ill and that he did not have the ability to prosecute and defend, and requested the court to give him a lighter punishment.
Topographic map near the incident. Courtesy of respondents
Second-instance trial change sentence to suspended death sentence causes controversy The Supreme People's Court intervened in the investigation of the file
On April 7 this year, the Guangxi Higher People's Court made a second-instance judgment revision.
The court held in the second instance that "the facts of the case ascertained by the court of first instance are clear, the evidence is credible and sufficient, the conviction is accurate, and the application of law is correct", but because Yang Guangyi's self-surrender and other circumstances were not taken into account, the sentence was improperly imposed.
Yang Guangyi has a clear understanding of the nature of his criminal acts, can control his own acts of committing crimes, and has full criminal responsibility capabilities. However, in view of the fact that Yang Guangyi surrendered to the public security organs and truthfully confessed the facts of the crime, which played a vital role in the detection of the case, Yang Guangyi was sentenced to death according to law and his execution was suspended for two years.
After the verdict was made public a few days ago, it sparked heated discussions, and the Supreme People's Court issued a message on May 10 that the case would be examined.
On May 11, Mr. Chen, the uncle of the victim Yang Xiaoyan, told the Beijing News that the family had proposed more than 310,000 yuan in civil compensation, which had now been concluded and entered the enforcement stage, and "not a penny has been received until now."
Mr. Chen added that Yang Xiaoyan's father died in his early years by saving drowning people, and his mother was in her 50s and was working as a chores in the village to raise five children. Before the second-instance judgment was changed, the family had not hired a lawyer for civil compensation due to financial constraints, "but after the results of the second-instance trial came out, we were very surprised and still found a lawyer." ”
Second-instance criminal judgment of the Guangxi Higher People's Court. Courtesy of respondents
On May 11, the Guangxi Higher People's Court replied to the Beijing News that in the second-instance criminal judgment, considering that the appellant Yang Guangyi (the defendant of the first-instance trial) had surrendered voluntarily, the sentence was changed to a suspended death sentence, but the sentence had been restricted.
Major case follow-up
Once the Supreme People's Court decides on a retrial, it is likely that the death penalty will be commuted
What does it mean for the Supreme People's Court to review the file? What happens next? How does this relate to the parties' complaints? Can the defendant be sentenced to death in a retrial decided by the case file? Does the declaration of the death penalty conflict with the principle of "no increase in sentence on appeal"? In the yang guangyi rape case, the reporter interviewed Hong Daode, professor of criminal procedure law at China University of Political Science and Law today, to analyze the above questions:
Beijing News: What does the SPC's adjustment mean, and what will be the direction of the follow-up procedures?
Hong Daode: The file adjustment means that the Supreme People's Court believes that there is a problem with the second-instance judgment of the case, so it must be reviewed. After the file is transferred, the possibility of retrial is very large, and there are three possibilities for follow-up procedures, one is that the Supreme People's Court appoints other high courts to retry the case, one is that the Supreme People's Court arraigns the case, and the third is to appoint the Guangxi Higher People's Court to retry the case.
Beijing News: The family filed a complaint today, in the case of the SPC's intervention in the investigation, is the appeal related to the retrial?
Hong Daode: The Supreme People's Court decided to transfer the file on the 10th, and the family filed a complaint on the 11th, which shows that the Supreme People's Court's file adjustment review was not based on the family's appeal, and the subsequent retrial decision was not based on the appeal, but based on the Supreme Court's belief that there was a problem with the second-instance judgment of the case.
However, it is also possible that after intervening in the review, the Supreme People's Court discovered other facts that have not been disclosed so far, there is indeed no problem in changing the judgment in the second instance, and the facts determined by the court have sufficient basis to support the reasons for the change of judgment.
Beijing News: Many people know the principle of "no additional sentence on appeal" in the Criminal Law, so if the case is retried, can the death penalty be changed again? Does it count as an increase in sentence?
Hong Daode: There is currently no clarity in the legal provisions on whether the retrial can be increased. The Supreme People's Court generally "does not increase the sentence in the retrial", but there are exceptions, and if the Supreme Court decides to retry the case, it is likely to retry and change the death penalty.
Beijing News: Judging from the current judgment, is it reasonable for the second-instance trial to use the "voluntary surrender" circumstances as a change of sentence to a suspended death sentence?
Hong Daode: Voluntary surrender is indeed a mitigating circumstance, but according to the Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Specific Issues Concerning the Handling of Voluntary Surrender and Meritorious Service: "Although there are circumstances of voluntary surrender or meritorious service, but the circumstances of the crime are particularly heinous, the consequences of the crime are particularly serious, the defendant's subjective malignancy is deep, and the personal danger is great, or if he prepares to surrender himself or make meritorious contributions in order to circumvent the law or evade punishment before committing the crime, he may not be given a lenient punishment." ”
Beijing News reporter Li Yifan Wang Wei