The defendant/exoneree
Nie Shubin (聂树斌), born on November 6, 1974; he was 21 when he was convicted and executed for rape and intentional murder.
Facts
On August 5, 1994, a decomposed female body was found in a corn field nearby an industrial compound. Nie, who was working at one of the factories in the compound, was found to be suspicious for “often riding a mountain bike following women,” as some unnamed witnesses stated. Nie was detained and questioned on October 1, 1994. While in custody, he did not confess until the sixth day. On October 9, 1994, Nie was formally arrested.
Procedural history
On March 15, 1995, the Shijiazhuang Intermediate Court convicted Nie of intentional murder and rape and imposed the death sentence on him.
On April 25, 1995, the Hebei Province High Court affirmed the conviction and sentence.
On April 27, 1995, Nie was executed.
Date of the conviction
March 15, 1995
Date the wrongful conviction was reversed
December 2, 2016
Days incarcerated
Executed
Why was the case reopened/reversed
Nie Shubin’s mother kept petitioning ever since he was detained.
The victim’s family had doubted Nie’s capacity to commit the crime since day one. They claimed the victim was a 36-year-old married woman with some martial arts training and Nie was a 21-year-old lightly built man.
In January 2005, Wang Shujin, who was then a suspect of several other rapes and murders, was detained by the police in Henan Province. He voluntarily confessed many times that he had raped and murdered a woman in a corn field of the west of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. After his case transferred to the Hebei police, Wang first learned that the Shijiazhuang case had been cleared and “the perpetrator” had been executed. Nevertheless, Wang had still insisted that he was the real perpetrator in Nie’s case.
A local new paper profiled this unusual case with the title - “one murder two real perpetrators.“
After Wang Shujin’s confession, Nie’s case attracted a lot of public attention, which pushed for clarification of the Nie case and delayed Wang’s execution.
On March 16, 2005, the Hebei Provincial Political-Legal Committee promised to investigate the Nie case and release a conclusion in one month. But a conclusion had not been released before Nie was exonerated by the SPC.
In December 2014, the SPC appointed the Shandong Provincial High Court to exercise jurisdiction over Nie’s case review. After review, the Shandong Provincial High Court concluded that the original conviction is not supported by sufficient evidence and that the possibility that Nie was not the real perpetrator cannot be excluded. It further suggested the SPC to re-open this case.
In March 2015, Nie’s lawyers were allowed the first time to review the entire case files.
In June 2016, the SPC decided to re-open this case.
On December 2, 2016, the SPC publicly announced that Nie was not guilty.
Factors contributing to the wrongful conviction
False confession
Nie was tortured by the police and forced to confess. According to Nie’s lawyer, and a police officer Zheng who worked at the same police station where Nie’s case was handled, Nie confessed because he was beaten by the police. According to police officer Zheng, it was very common in the 1990s, especially during the “strike hard” campaign, that suspects were beaten and forced to confess.
Dubious witness identification/statements
No eye witnesses at the crime scene.
Some witness statements indicated that a young man that likes to ride a mountain bike was following women and looking at them with “evil eyes.”
Problematic forensic evidence
No sperm collected. No DNA test done.
Defense lawyer's errors/absence
Nie’s lawyer Zhang Jinghe was appointed by the court for free. He did not claim Nie was innocent, but raised that Nie was a first-time offender and had shown repentance after the crime, with hope that Nie could receive a lenient sentence.
Court's errors
Failed to exclude the forensic report and the crime scene investigation report even though those two documentations were not signed by two witnesses as required by the law.
Failed to exclude the illegally extracted confession.
Other developments
In March 2007, Wang was convicted of a series of murders and rapes and was sentenced to death, but was acquitted of the murder and rape in Nie’s case.
During Wang’s trial, Wang and his lawyer tried to prove Wang committed the crime in Nie’s case, while the prosecutor contested that Wang did not commit that offense.
In April 2007, Wang appealed his conviction on the ground that his offense in Shijiazhuang was not prosecuted.
In September 2013, Wang’s appeal was overturned and the conviction was affirmed on the ground that Wang’s confession on that crime does not match some physical evidence. For example, Wang confessed that he stepped on the chest of the body after the crime, but the forensic evidence does not show there is any chest fracture on the body; Wang confessed that the victim was wearing a shirt with a pattern of small flowers, but the physical evidence shows that the pattern is different. However, the victim’s father claimed that the police came to their home and took more than one of the victim’s shirts. The victim’s father also claimed that the shirt the police presented at Nie’s trial is different from the one they presented at Wang’s trial.
During the death penalty review process, in November 2020, the SPC remanded Wang’s case to the trial court for a new trial, citing discovery of new evidence.
The trial court again convicted Wang of murder and rape, and sentenced him to death. Wang appealed.
Wang’s conviction and sentence was affirmed by the appellate court in December 2020.
Wang was executed on February 2, 2021 after the SPC reviewed and affirmed Wang’s death penalty sentence.
There is speculation that Wang was seeking credit by confessing to the offense in Nie’s case because it could lead to a lenient sentence if he confessed to a crime committed by him but not known by the investigator before his confession.
In March 2017, Nie’s parents received 2.68 million RMB of State compensation.