In 1997, a man in Shangqiu, Henan Province, was sentenced to death for "killing people." Later, due to his good performance in prison, he was suspended to fixed-term imprisonment. Unexpectedly, after 11 years of service with the man, the "deceased" was resurrected and once again entered the field of vision. It turned out that this case was a misunderstanding at all. What's going on? Why does the "dead" suddenly "come back from the dead"? How should the court settle the case? In this article, let's uncover the wrong case of Shangqiu.
The law has always represented the fairness and justice of society. But a case at the end of the last century touched the mood of tens of millions of chinese people. After the death row inmate "killed" and went to prison, after serving 11 years of probation, everyone found that the "victim" was actually "resurrected from the dead". This case sounds very outrageous, but it is a real thing that happened in Shangqiu, Henan In 1997.
One day in 1997, in a small village in Zhecheng County, Shangqiu, Henan, two villagers got into a dispute. This is a relatively common thing in rural areas. The crowd didn't pay much attention. But since the dispute, one of them has disappeared innocently. The missing villager is named Zhao Zhenxuan, and the villager who quarreled with him is Zhao Zuohai. Both are villagers in Zhao Lou Village, Zhaocheng County. It is said that on the day of the dispute, the two also moved their knives.
Zhao Zhenxuan's disappearance made everyone point the spearhead of suspicion at Zhao Zuohai. In February 1998, the nephew of the missing person, Zhao Zhenxuan, went to the local public security organs to report the case. The nephew insisted that his uncle was killed by Zhao Zuohai. When the life of the people was at stake, the local public security bureau immediately dispatched an investigation team to Zhao Lou Village to investigate. Villagers told police that Zhao Zuohai had an argument with the missing person, Zhao Zhenxuan, four months ago, and the two fought and moved knives. Afterwards, Zhao Zuohai also threatened to take revenge.
As the saying goes: three people become tigers, and the population in the village spreads word of mouth, and everyone can't help but suspect Zhao Zuohai. Even the police, under the influence of such public opinion, set the focus of the incident on Zhao Zuohai. However, disappearances are an extremely difficult type of case to deal with. At that time, China was hindered by the limitations of investigation technology, and there was no way to quickly investigate the truth of the incident. The case was thus put on hold for more than a year.
Zhao Zuohai was an ordinary farmer in Zhao Lou Village, with a harmonious and happy family, three sons and a daughter. But since Zhao Zhenxuan disappeared, Zhao Zuohai's peaceful life has been broken. The suspicious look in the villagers made him feel very uneasy. But this storm is just the beginning. In May 1999, villagers were digging a well when they found a body at the bottom of the well. The police received the news and rushed to the scene immediately.
When the police arrived at the scene, they quickly surrounded the scene. Some villagers talked about it: This will not be the missing Zhao Zhenxuan. One pass ten, ten pass a hundred, everyone talked quite lively, almost portraying the whole process of Zhao Zuohai's "mutilation" of the missing person Zhao Zhenxuan. I have to admire that the imagination of the villagers is extremely rich. The police were affected by everyone, and the direction of handling the case once again focused on Zhao Zuohai. It has been a year since the disappearance, and the police, under pressure, want to close the case quickly.
I don't know what kind of process it took, villager Zhao Zuohai was confused and identified as a "criminal suspect" and was immediately arrested by the police. Zhao Zuohai's life was plunged into darkness. During the interrogation, Zhao Zuohai insisted on explaining to the police that he had not killed anyone. The police station took Care of Zhao Zuohai and interrogated him day and night. At that time, the education level of the auxiliary police at the police station was generally not high, and many of them were local "related households".
The task of these auxiliary police officers is to assist the police in closing the case. If the case can be closed as soon as possible, they can have less trouble. Every day, the people at the police station severely beat Zhao Zuohai and forced him to confess the "truth of the crime." At this point, the police almost decided in their hearts that the murderer must be Zhao Zuohai. At the same time, the detention center also detained Zhao Zuohai's wife. Zhao Zuohai's wife was beaten every day like her husband.
As long as she said that "her husband did not kill" or "did not know", what awaited her was a more severe beating, and she could not sleep for several days. After more than a month of inhuman torture, Zhao Zuohai's wife finally couldn't hold on any longer and was forced to confess her husband's guilt. In December 2002, the Shangqiu Intermediate People's Court rendered a first-instance judgment redefining the original "disappearance case" as a "homicide case", and the murderer was Zhao Zuohai.
According to the court trial, Zhao Zuohai had a physical conflict with Zhao Zhenxuan on the same day, and then Zhao Zuohai retaliated by killing Zhao Zhenxuan and disposing of the body. Zhao Zuohai languished in court and did not raise objections from beginning to end. Everyone thinks he's ashamed of his sins. The court sentenced Zhao Zuohai to death for intentional homicide, suspended for two years. In February of the following year, the Henan Provincial High Court approved the judgment of the Shangqiu Intermediate Court in accordance with the law.
Zhao Zuohai was imprisoned and did not file any appeal after the trial. Zhao Lou Village returned to calm. Only Zhao Zuohai in prison was turbulent in his heart. He deeply felt what is called every day and should not be called the earth and the earth is not spirited. Although Zhao Zuohai was an ordinary farmer with little culture, he showed rare strength after he was imprisoned. He did not give up on himself, nor did he cut off his own life, but instead accepted the "reform" and actively performed in prison.
Based on his good performance in prison, the court commuted the suspended execution to life imprisonment and converted the sentence to fixed-term imprisonment. Zhao Zuohai lived strongly in the hope of life. Ten years at the snap of a minute, one day in 2010, a strange thing made the whole village instantly explode. Zhao Zhenxuan, the deceased in the murder case, was actually "resurrected from the dead". He re-entered the vision of the villagers of Zhao Lou Village and stood in front of everyone alive.
Of course, the dead do not come back to life. Zhao Zhenxuan had been living well for so many years, and the body dug out at the bottom of the well was actually not him. The body that the villagers dug up at the bottom of the well was a missing corpse with a skull below the knee joint, and the body was highly decomposed, making it difficult to determine who the owner of the body was. There was no DNA in forensic technology of that era, so it was difficult to identify the deceased. However, according to the villagers' description, the police hastily convicted Zhao Zuohai as a murderer in the absence of sufficient evidence.
So what is the truth of this incident? Since the missing person Zhao Zhenxuan did not die at all, where did he go all these years? And who is the owner of the corpse at the bottom of the well? The case is once again confusing. However, what is certain is that Zhao Zuohai is not a murderer at all. After the police questioned Zhao Zhenxuan, the truth of the incident was finally revealed to everyone.
It turned out that this case was a misunderstanding. Zhao Zhenxuan originally had a good relationship with Zhao Zuohai, and the two went to Shaanxi to work together. But because of some economic disputes, the two formed a bond. After the two returned to the village, Zhao Zhenxuan went to Zhao Zuohai's house again and made trouble. Between the clashes of words, Zhao Zhenxuan picked up a kitchen knife and slashed at Zhao Zuohai. Afterwards, Zhao Zhenxuan was worried that Zhao Zuohai would retaliate against him because of this incident, so he quickly packed up his things and left Zhao Lou Village.
Zhao Zhenxuan wandered away from home, had no means of making a living, and could only beg every day. After several years of fleeing the wilderness, Zhao Zhenxuan suffered from hemiplegia. Because there was no money for medical treatment, Zhao Zhenxuan could only return to Zhao Lou Village again. The appearance of Zhao Zhenchang alarmed the judicial circles. "The dead come back to life", the original verdict is actually innocent? This incident has caused a strong impact on the Shangqiu Court, the Public Security Bureau, and the Henan Higher People's Court. The reversal of events is simply more incredible than the events themselves.
On the afternoon of May 5, 2010, the Henan Provincial Court decided to start the retrial proceedings again. This time, all eyes were highly focused on the incident. This is a salvage of credibility and an account for the people. The Shangqiu Intermediate Court quickly handed over a copy of Zhao Zhenxuan's identity certificate and other materials. At this point, the case of Zhao Zuohai's murder was officially determined to be a wrong case. The court immediately pronounced a verdict: Zhao Zuohai was acquitted.
Zhao Zuohai walked out of the prison gate with a gray hair and a haggard look. He didn't expect him to be able to regain his freedom so quickly. He didn't think that he would finally be able to sink into the snow one day. He had mixed feelings for an instant, and his tears couldn't stop falling. He went from being an ordinary abandoned farmer to the focus of public attention in an instant. The year he was arrested, his eldest son was 15 years old. The wife could not bear such a day and remarried to a neighboring village. Sons and daughters are also raised by different families.
Everything has changed dramatically. This is a true portrayal of the separation of wives and children. The Zhao Zuohai incident has aroused widespread concern from all walks of life. People sympathize with the experience of this ordinary farmer. On the morning of May 13, 2010, the Henan Provincial High People's Court held a press conference. The meeting announced that Zhao Zuohai would be given state compensation and living hardship subsidies totaling 650,000 yuan.
On May 27, 2011, the Longting District Procuratorate of Kaifeng Province indicted six clerks involved in the case. These 6 people participated in the acceptance of Zhao Zuohai's case, they were: cadres of the Shangqiu City Public Security Bureau and the Zhecheng County Public Security Bureau. In the zhao zuohai incident, they tortured Zhao Zuohai to extract a confession, mistaking him for a murderer, constituting the crime of extorting a confession by torture. The court dealt with these 6 people seriously in accordance with the law.
Zhao Zuohai received a subsidy of 650,000 yuan, and the people involved in the torture of him to extract a confession also received the punishment they deserved. Can all this really make up for Zhao Zuohai's losses? After Zhao Zuohai returned to Zhao Lou Village, the eldest son rushed home after hearing the news. The eldest son came for another purpose. He knew that his father Zhao Zuohai had received a subsidy from the court for this matter, so he asked his father to take out some money to help him complete the wedding.
Zhao Zuohai had not seen his eldest son for many years, and his face was full of happiness. Rural parents have struggled all their lives for their children. Zhao Zuohai immediately took out 100,000 yuan to hold a wedding for his son, and then took out tens of thousands of yuan to build a new marriage house for his son. Zhao Zuohai was compensated by everyone in the village. In Zhao Lou Village, when you look up, you may not be able to say which of your own relatives. After Zhao Zuohai's accident, no one spoke for him. The crowd fell into the well and pushed him far away, saying that he was guilty and of bad character.
Now Zhao Zuohai has been wronged and brought back a sum of compensation. The people in the village looked at each other with hungry eyes. Zhao Zuohai's uncle Zhao Zhenju was the first to find Zhao Zhenju's return. Uncle Zhao Zhenju felt that he had great merit, so he asked Zhao Zuohai for 50,000 yuan. In April 2011, the eldest son withdrew 140,000 yuan from Zhao Zuohai's compensation. At this point, Zhao Zuohai's 650,000 had shrunk to more than 300,000 in the blink of an eye.
But he didn't spend the rest of his life. This son saw that he would not be so filial, and his wife had already run away with others. You have to find a way to make a living. He took the rest of the money and came to Ningbo to work. However, because of the low level of education and no ability to distinguish between true and false, he was cheated out of 150,000 yuan by the scammers. Then Zhao Zuohai turned back to Shangqiu City again and spent 28,000 yuan to pick up a hostel. However, due to improper operation, the hotel lost money in the end and could only close its doors.
When Zhao Zuohai restarted a new life, on the other hand, the police once again set up a special team to investigate the body at the bottom of the well. After the take-off and development of China in the early 21st century, china has made a substantial leap in scientific and technological means. Police investigative methods and techniques have also matured. On May 14, 2010, after police investigators identified the deceased as a villager named Gao Zongzhi in Shangqiu City. The police investigation was swift and the case finally came to light.
In the end, the police identified the suspects as Li Haijin, Yang Mingfu and Zhang Xiangliang in Zhecheng County. The deceased, Gao Zongzhi and Li Haijin, were originally in heze, Shandong Province, doing a mooncake business. But during the cooperation, the two had a conflict and dispute. Subsequently, Li Haijin held a grudge and decided to put Gao Zongzhi to death. He found his friends Yang Mingfu and Zhang Xiangliang, and teamed up to trick Gao Zongzhi into a place, and then brutally killed Gao Zongzhi and dismembered his body.
The torso of Gao Zongzhi's body was buried under the well until it was discovered by the diggers. The mutilated body case was successfully solved. The trials of the two cases were completed successively, and the people involved in the cases were finally punished as they deserved. However, Zhang Liyong, president of the Henan Provincial Higher People's Court, has always been ashamed of the wrong case. On June 21, 2010, Zhang Liyong and the leadership team of the Higher People's Court and the Shangqiu Intermediate Court personally visited Zhao Zuohai's home. Zhang Liyong personally bowed to Zhao Zuohai and apologized.
Then, Zhang Liyong returned to the court to reflect deeply on the case, held a seminar, and discussed with the court cadres how to avoid such a wrongful case in the future. Zhang Liyong said that he did everything possible to help Zhao Zuohai return to normal life. The local government also attaches great importance to this case, and in order to take care of the life of Zhao Zuohai's family, the government promised to build another 6 houses for Zhao Zuohai's son. The tables and bowls in the home are also purchased with the help of the government.
With the help of everyone, Zhao Zuohai can also be regarded as gradually living a stable life. In any case, as Zhao Zuohai himself said: "I am very satisfied with my life now, and now the clouds in the sky have dispersed..."