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▲li daqing working

red star news chief reporter | wei xing

editor｜guo zhuang editor｜li binbin

carrying a bamboo basket, the 16-year-old girl went out to cut grass for pigs and did not return overnight. soon, she was found dead in hushanganggou near the village.

this happened 21 years ago in dongping village, luoping town, wuning county, jiujiang city, jiangxi province. at that time, the city and provincial courts determined that the victim, yu moumou, was raped and killed by others, and li daqing, a mentally retarded person from the same village, was identified as the "murderer" in the case.

"he is an honest man, but he has had a bad brain since he was young, and everyone in the village knows this." on june 3 this year, li gangu, the head of the dongping village villager group, described li daqing to a red star news reporter. "if you borrow 5 yuan from him and return him 20 yuan, he will not accept it because he thinks the pattern on the banknotes he borrows is different from the one he returns."

the disability certificate shows that li daqing is intellectually disabled and his disability level is level three.

shortly after the case occurred, li daqing was sentenced to death by the jiujiang intermediate people's court. after li daqing appealed the verdict, the jiangxi provincial high people's court changed the sentence to suspended death sentence. li daqing and his family continued to appeal, but all the appeals were rejected by the jiangxi provincial high people's court.

more than nine months after li daqing was released from prison, he received a "notice of criminal appeal results" issued by the people's procuratorate of jiangxi province: the evidence provided by the jiangxi higher people's court in determining that li daqing was guilty of intentional homicide and rape was not accurate and sufficient, and the facts determined were indeed incorrect, and reasonable doubt could not be ruled out.

based on this, the people's procuratorate of jiangxi province submitted a retrial prosecution recommendation to the higher people's court of jiangxi province.

——1——

16-year-old girl was killed, and a mentally retarded person from the same village was convicted

on the afternoon of june 3 this year, li daqing, who had just been released from prison, was weeding in the farmland behind his house. when a red star news reporter asked him to tell the story of how he raped and killed a 16-year-old girl named yu 21 years ago and what he thought about it, the hoe he was waving suddenly stopped in mid-air, but he was unable to answer for a moment.

his younger brother li dahua told the red star news reporter with some embarrassment: "my brother can't answer complex questions. he can't think straight, so he has to use short sentences to ask questions directly."

then, li dahua simplified the question: "they said you raped and murdered people, is that true?" li daqing simply replied: "i didn't!"

▲the place where the 16-year-old girl yu was killed

all this stemmed from the murder of a girl named yu from the same village.

on september 5, 2003, the criminal judgment no. (2003) jiuzhongxingyichu no. 26 issued by the jiujiang intermediate people's court of jiangxi province showed that according to yu moumou's father, at about 8 o'clock in the morning on may 19, 2003, his daughter yu moumou went out to collect grass for pigs, but did not return until the next morning, so he asked villagers yang moumou and others to look for her, and finally found yu moumou's body in a ravine in hushan, group 7 of dahong village (note: now renamed dongping village).

"on may 21, 2003, my brother li daqing was taken away by the police," li dahua recalled to the red star news reporter. that night, his mother told him, "your brother was taken away by the police during the day and hasn't come back yet at night." li dahua comforted his mother, "it's okay, the police are just trying to understand the situation and will be out soon."

unexpectedly, what they thought would happen “soon” did not happen.

the jiujiang intermediate people's court found out that at about 10:00 on may 19, 2003, the defendant li daqing was carrying electric fishing tools to the hushan port in the seventh group of dahong village, luoping town, wuning county. when he saw the victim yu moumou picking pig grass by the wasteland, he had the idea of ​​raping her. li daqing then hid the electric fishing tools, then went around yu from the wasteland, and when yu was not prepared, he strangled yu's neck with both hands, causing him to faint. afterwards, li daqing dragged yu to the hushan xiaolongshan valley, more than 10 meters away from the harbor, and raped her.

the relevant verdict shows that in order to silence the witness, li daqing picked up a stone from a nearby earthen ridge and hit yu's head and face several times. then, li daqing took the bamboo basket used by yu to pick pig grass (which contained the deceased's purple-red jacket and walkman) to the body, covered his head with the purple-red jacket, covered his body with dry grass, and then threw the bamboo basket and walkman on the mountain not far above the body, and then fled the scene.

based on this, the jiujiang intermediate people's court made a first-instance judgment on september 5, 2003, sentencing the defendant li daqing to death for intentional homicide and depriving him of his political rights for life; and sentencing him to five years in prison for rape. it was decided to execute the death penalty and deprive him of his political rights for life.

——2——

from death penalty to suspended death penalty, two lawyers talk about li daqing's case

after the first-instance judgment, li daqing was dissatisfied and appealed to the jiangxi provincial higher people's court.

the criminal judgment (2003) gan xing yi zhong zi no. 218 issued by the jiangxi provincial high people's court on november 25, 2003 shows that: the jiangxi provincial high people's court believes that the appellant li daqing disregarded national laws, violated the will of women, used violence, and forced others to have sexual relations. in order to evade legal prosecution, he killed people to silence them... his behavior has constituted rape and intentional homicide... however, in view of the specific circumstances of this case, li daqing can be sentenced to death, not immediately executed, and deprived of political rights for life.

ultimately, the second trial sentenced li daqing to death penalty with a two-year reprieve for the crimes of intentional homicide and rape.

▲ screenshot of the criminal judgment (part) of the jiangxi provincial higher people's court

on january 29, 2022, li daqing was released from prison after serving 18 years, 2 months and 5 days in prison.

luo fang was li daqing's first-instance legal aid lawyer and is now the director of jiangxi yibo law firm. in early june this year, he took out the relevant case files at the time and told the red star news reporter that after he left his original law firm, these case files were supposed to be handed over to the original law firm. "but this case is a knot in my heart. 21 years have passed, and i still remember it clearly." luo fang said that more than a year ago, the jiangxi provincial people's procuratorate also sent people to the law firm to learn about this case from him.

luo fang provided the red star news reporter with the "meeting record" of his meeting with li daqing in the detention center in 2003, which showed that li daqing said he did not rape and kill yu moumou, and also said that the earlier confession was because "the public security personnel beat me." "during the trial, li daqing also denied the accusations of rape and murder," luo fang said.

luo fang provided the red star news reporter with his original defense statement, saying that li daqing's intelligence was inconsistent with his confession. "li daqing is illiterate, his intelligence is obviously lower than that of a normal person, and he cannot understand words such as disposable paper cups, silvery white, and double eyebrows." luo fang said that the two confessions on may 28 and june 7, 2003, recorded the course of the crime and the characteristics of the victim's clothing almost word for word. "is it because the defendant has a good memory, or did he copy the previous one when making the transcript? the unreasonable transcript is unconvincing."

luo fang mentioned that the court had previously determined that the victim was dragged to a ravine after being strangled to unconsciousness; but when the forensic doctor performed an autopsy, no signs of dragging were found on the victim's body.

"the most objective evidence in this case is the defendant's record of identifying the crime scene and the victim's belongings, but it should be noted that the defendant's familiarity with the crime scene may be because he has been there or heard about it." luo fang believes that this cannot be used as direct evidence to convict.

"after my brother was beaten, he just identified the people according to their (police) requirements," said li dahua.

yin yuanmin was the second-instance defense lawyer for li daqing and is currently the director of jiangxi qun yi law firm. on june 5 this year, in an interview with red star news, he said that he had defended li daqing's innocence, mainly because the court's determination that li daqing committed rape was based on unclear facts and insufficient evidence.

"the crime of rape is not established, and there is no motive for intentional homicide." yin yuanmin believes that the existing evidence and identification conclusions cannot prove that li daqing committed the crime. the case does not meet the standards of certainty and sufficiency in terms of evidence, is not exclusive and unique, and cannot rule out reasonable suspicion that someone else committed the crime.

——3——

the provincial procuratorate proposed a retrial prosecution suggestion

"apart from li daqing's confession, there is no evidence to convict him in this case, and there is a lack of physical evidence related to li daqing," said luo fang. it is precisely because of this that li daqing and his family have been appealing.

on december 8, 2021, the jiangxi provincial high people's court issued the "notice of rejection of appeal" (2021) gan xing shen no. 60, stating that the process of the investigators' interrogation of li daqing in accordance with the law was confirmed by simultaneous audio and video recordings, and there was no evidence to prove that li daqing made a confession of guilt after being tortured or induced, and believed that the sentence imposed on li daqing was in compliance with the law. li daqing's appeal was therefore rejected.

li dahua expressed the hope that the police would provide uninterrupted synchronized audio and video recordings of the period during which li daqing was taken to the public security agency.

nearly a year after his appeal was rejected by the jiangxi higher people's court, li daqing received the "notice of criminal appeal results" issued by the people's procuratorate of jiangxi province on november 15, 2022.

▲ screenshot of the criminal appeal result notice (partial) from the jiangxi provincial people's procuratorate

the notice mentioned that after identification, no sperm was detected in the victim yu moumou's shorts and vaginal smears; there were five wounds on his face, which were probably caused by being hit by a relatively sharp object.

the notice also shows that the reasons for the appeal raised by the complainant are valid. first, the authenticity of the guilty confession, on-site identification record, and identification record on which the original judgment was based is questionable, and the possibility of being induced cannot be ruled out. second, there is no other evidence to link li daqing to this case. third, the possibility of someone else committing the crime cannot be ruled out.

the people's procuratorate of jiangxi province believes that the evidence in the criminal judgment (2003) gan xing yi zhong zi no. 218 of the jiangxi provincial high people's court that li daqing committed the crimes of intentional homicide and rape is not accurate and sufficient, and the facts found are indeed wrong and reasonable doubt cannot be ruled out. based on this, the people's procuratorate of jiangxi province decided to submit a procuratorial recommendation for retrial to the jiangxi provincial high people's court.

mr. yu, the father of yu moumou, said in an interview with red star news: "my daughter was only 16 years old when she was killed. we are the victim's family in this case, but we have not sued li daqing. in addition, the case was solved by the criminal police team of wuning county public security bureau. you can ask the police officers in charge for details. we don't want to be interviewed about this."

red star news reporter learned that when yu was killed in 2003, the wuning county public security bureau set up a special task force to crack the "may 19" murder case. in early june this year, when red star news reporter reported to the police of the special task force the jiangxi provincial people's procuratorate's retrial procuratorial suggestion on the case and the different views of li daqing's family members and hoped to hear the opinions of the special task force, the other party said it was inconvenient to accept the interview.

li daqing's appeal case did not make the progress his family expected, so li dahua subsequently sent the appeal letter to both the supreme people's procuratorate and the supreme people's court. the supreme people's procuratorate forwarded the materials to the jiangxi provincial people's procuratorate in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. on august 29 this year, the jiangxi provincial people's procuratorate replied to li dahua via text message: "after review, our court has submitted a procuratorial recommendation for a retrial to the jiangxi provincial higher people's court in accordance with the law for the appeal case you reported, and the appeal case has been closed."

on the same day (august 29), the supreme people's court replied to li dahua in a text message: "the letter regarding (2003) jiuzhong criminal first instance no. 26 is being processed. please wait patiently." the reporter noticed that the "(2003) jiuzhong criminal first instance no. 26" in the reply letter is the number of the "criminal judgment" made by the jiujiang intermediate people's court on september 5, 2003.

on september 20, red star news once again contacted relevant staff from the people's procuratorate of jiangxi province and the higher people's court of jiangxi province to further understand the progress of li daqing's appeal case. the staff from the two courts said that they were inconvenient to accept interviews. if necessary, the units will uniformly inform the public of relevant information.