Man Executed 21 years ago in China, Found Not Guilty of Rape and Murder

An Hebei man, Nie Shubin, was exonerated on Friday by China’s Supreme People’s Court after being executed 21 years ago for a crime he didn’t commit.

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) admitted that flaws in the Chinese justice system had led to the wrongful conviction of Shubin, who was found guilty in 1995 of raping and murdering a Shijiazhuang woman.

The SPC reversed the conviction upon discovering that several legal violations had been committed during Nie’s trial which included insufficient evidence, lost documents, and a confession found to be inadmissible, along with the fact that key details like time and cause of death had not been established by the prosecution.

It took almost ten years before Nie’s grieved parents were given another opportunity to vindicate their son. Even after the SPC assigned the case to a Shandong court for review in 2014, it wasn’t until this past June that the SPC eventually decided to reopen Nie’s case.

Nie’s mother, Zhang Huanzhi, told Xinhua:

“My husband and I often say to ourselves we have to endeavor to live until the day my son’s name is cleared,”

Upon finally hearing the long-awaited news that his son had been declared innocent, Nie’s 73-year-old father, Nie Xuesheng, burst into tears saying:

“My son can finally rest in peace.”