The Defendant/Exoneree
Xie Zhehai (谢哲海) was born in July 1971. He was twenty-five years old when he was first detained and fifty-one years old when exonerated.
Facts
On the night of May 30, 1996, a young woman whose family name was Wang, residing in Dayingzi Village of Zhoukou City, Henan Province, was severely assaulted on her way home from a temple fair. She was found the next day and pronounced dead. According to autopsy reports, Wang died from injuries caused by beating her head and body.
On May 31, 1996, police began investigating the homicide. Investigators said the murder weapon was an iron rod. They limited their investigation to young men living in the neighborhood with a history of “hooliganism.” (News accounts do not say if any had actual criminal records.) Police identified Xie Zhehai (“Xie”) as a primary suspect because he attended the same temple fair that evening and other young men in the village said he was a likely suspect.
During interrogation, Xie initially said he was innocent but later confessed to murdering Wang after attempting to rape her. However, details of his inculpatory statements were inconsistent with each other, with the crime scene, and with the autopsy report. There was no direct evidence linking Xie to the crime.
Procedural History
On June 4, 1996, Xie was placed under residential surveillance.
On June 7, 1996, Xie was criminally detained, and on June 17, he was formally arrested.
On June 25, 1996, the Taikang County People’s Procuratorate returned the case to the police for further investigation, saying that the facts were unclear and evidence was insufficient (that is, it did not meet the legal standard for prosecution).
The procuratorate indicted Xie and filed the case with the Zhoukou Intermediate People’s Court (“Intermediate Court”) but the court returned it to the procuratorate, saying that the facts were unclear and the evidence insufficient.
On September 4, 1996, prosecutors resubmitted the case to the court; Xie’s lawyers later said that prosecutors did not submit any new evidence.
On December 26, 1999, the Intermediate People’s Court held its first hearing on Xie’s case.
On February 29, 2000, the Intermediate Court convicted Xie of intentional homicide and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The court also ordered Xie to pay 6,155.6 RMB ($743.51) in compensation for the victim’s medical and funeral expenses. The original verdict is not available online.
On June 2, 2000, the Henan High People’s Court (“Henan High Court”) rejected Xie’s appeal and affirmed the original conviction and sentence.
On September 19, 2018, Xie was released from prison after serving twenty-two years and four months with a commuted sentence.
In February 2019, Xie filed a petition for a retrial with the Henan High Court. He was rejected on August 29 of the same year.
Subsequently, he filed petitions to the Supreme People’s Court and the Henan Provincial People’s Procuratorate.
On September 22, 2020, the Henan High Court ruled that the evidence supporting Xie’s original conviction was insufficient and ordered a retrial. At the retrial, both the prosecution and defense agreed that the evidence was insufficient to prove Xie’s guilt.
On November 28, 2022, the Henan High Court vacated Xie’s conviction and acquitted him due to insufficient evidence. Xie’s lawyers published a photograph of a portion of the High Court’s decision.
Date of Conviction
February 29, 2000
Date the Wrongful Conviction Was Vacated/Reversed
November 28, 2022
Number of Days in Incarceration
8,143
Why Was the Case Reopened/Reversed
Xie maintained his innocence and repeatedly petitioned to reopen the case before, during, and after his conviction and throughout his prison term. Despite being illiterate, he taught himself to read in prison and wrote letters of petition while he served his sentence. After his release, with the help of his lawyer, Xie continued to petition, including submitting retrial petitions to the Supreme People’s Fourth Circuit Court and the Henan Provincial Procuratorate.
Factors Contributing to the Wrongful Conviction
False Confession
Between May 31, 1996, and July 16, 1996, police interrogated Xie fourteen times. Before June 6, Xie consistently stated he was innocent. However, under what his lawyers called “intense political pressure” during the early hours of June 7, he admitted the crime. and then reaffirmed his confession before being transferred to the detention center. Xie repeatedly recanted and then reaffirmed his confession before being transferred to the detention center.
Xie told his lawyer after his release from prison that he had been handcuffed and physically abused during the interrogations in order to force him to confirm the police theory of what happened. For example, he admitted to hitting Wang with a stick, a brick, and a shovel, but the interrogation ended only when Xie admitted to using an iron rod – which the police believed to be the murder weapon. When police did not find blood spatters on Xie’s clothing, they suggested that he must have buried the shirt he was wearing when he killed Wang, and Xie eventually changed his narrative to conform to the police version.
Xie was illiterate and could not read the police statement of his confession. According to Xie, police forcibly pressed his inked finger on the statement in lieu of his signature.
Unreliable Identification
Immediately after the crime, the police summoned eighteen young men, including Xie, to a local school, where each man was asked to step forward and point to the person he thought may have committed the crime. Several men pointed to Xie.
Insufficient Evidence
Police apparently never recovered any physical evidence left by the perpetrator, so there was nothing that could be matched to Xie. Police said they did not find Xie’s fingerprints on the iron rod. Police also did not present any witnesses. The only evidence that police presented of Xie’s guilt was his confession.
The Intermediate Court found that Xie intentionally killed Wang after attempting to rape her. However, the case record contained nothing to establish that Wang’s attacker actually attempted to rape her.
Prosecutorial Errors
The prosecution relied entirely on Xie’s confessions despite inconsistencies across multiple statements. The procuratorate asked the police to examine Xie’s person for possible traces of Wang’s blood but proceeded with the case anyway when police failed to provide further evidence.
Investigator’s Tunnel Vision
During the initial investigation, investigators focused on a narrow pool of male suspects between the ages of sixteen and thirty with a history of hooliganism who had been in the vicinity of the crime scene the day of Wang’s murder. The screening identified a total of 18 suspects, including Xie.
Investigators treated Xie’s inconsistent statements as evidence of guilt, while disregarding inconsistencies between the physical evidence and their own theory of the case. For example, when they did not find any blood spatter on Xie’s clothes, police decided that Xie must have changed clothes and disposed of the clothes he wore when committing the crime; they then pressured Xie into admitting that he had worn a white shirt when attacking Wang and later buried it. No such shirt was ever found.
Other Developments
At the time of the investigation, China was implementing a nationwide “Strike Hard” (“Yan Da”) anti-crime campaign and Henan Province was a key target area. This put substantial pressure on police, prosecutors, and courts to secure convictions and resolve cases quickly. Under the directive to “act swiftly and impose strict penalties,” a number of wrongful convictions occurred in 1996.
After his exoneration, Xie applied for 20.67 million RMB in state compensation, including damages for over 22 years of wrongful imprisonment and emotional distress, along with demanding that the Henan High Court and liable authority issue a public apology on state, provincial, and municipal media outlets to restore his reputation.
On May 10, 2023, the Supreme People’s Court issued a notice setting the compensation rate for infringement of a citizen’s personal freedom at 436.89 RMB per day. Xie applied to the Henan High Court for 10,672,785.81 RMB in compensation for his wrongful imprisonment.
On June 15, 2023, the Taikang County People’s Court held a hearing at which Xie Zhehai appeared and presented his arguments for state compensation. No further information has been published.