Yang Ming Murder Case 杨明故意杀人案

The defendant/exoneree 

  • Yang Ming (杨明) was born on August 15, 1965; he was thirty years old when arrested and fifty years old when acquitted.

Facts

  • On February 18, 1995, a decomposed female body was found in a catch basin at Tianzhu County in Guizhou province. The body was identified as Wang Jiafeng (Wang) by her family members.

  • Yang Ming (Yang) and Wang had an affair in Tianzhu County in 1993. Then Wang left for work in Guangdong Province. In November 1994, Wang came back to Tianzhu County. Yang began to date and live with another woman named Yang Xuemei (YXM) in January 1995.

Procedural history

  • On March 20, 1995, Yang was criminally detained.

  • On April 12, 1995, Yang was held in a form of custody called “sheltering for investigation” (收容审查).

  • On August 28, 1995, Yang was formally arrested.

  • On September 13, 1996, he was indicted on the charge of murder.

  • On November 1, 1996, after a trial at the Qiandongnan Intermediate People’s Court (Intermediate Court) and deliberation by the court’s adjudication committee, the Intermediate Court sent the case back to the Qiandongnan City People’s Procuratorate (City Procuratorate) for supplementary investigation.

  • On December 13, 1996, the City Procuratorate indicted Yang again without new evidence.

  • On December 26, 1996, Yang was convicted of murder and sentenced to the death penalty with a two-year reprieve.

  • On January 6, 1997, Yang appealed to the Guizhou Provincial High Court (High Court).

  • On March 4, 1998, the High Court upheld the conviction and sentencing. Yang was sent to prison to serve his time.

  • In October 2014, the Guizhou Provincial People’s Procuratorate (Provincial Procuratorate) began a post-conviction review of Yang’s case upon numerous petitions from Yang and his family.

  • On April 1, 2015, the Provincial Procuratorate issued a prosecutorial recommendation to the High Court for a new trial on the basis of unclear facts and insufficient evidence.

  • The High Court decided to reopen the case on April 21, 2015, and acquitted Yang on August 11, 2015, on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to prove his guilt.

Date of the wrongful conviction

  • December 26, 1996

Date the wrongful conviction was reversed

  • August 11, 2015

Days incarcerated

  • 7,449

Why was the case reopened/reversed

Factors contributing to the wrongful conviction

  • False witness testimony

  • Investigators’ tunnel vision

    • One witness had testified that she saw the victim quarreling with a man on the night the crime occurred. The witness claimed that the man was slim (Yang was heavy-built). Based on the police dossiers, two people alleged that the victim was in a poor relationship with Luo Laoliu, who had made an explicit statement that he wanted to kill the victim. However, police failed to pursue the two leads about other possible suspects.

  • Problematic forensic evidence

  • Errors on the prosecutor’s side

    • The prosecution had been pushing for the conviction without sufficient evidence. Despite the court’s requests for more evidence, the prosecution did not present any.

  • Errors on the court’s side

    • The court sent the case back to the prosecution for lacking sufficient evidence but convicted Yang after the second indictment without any additional evidence. 

    • Yang contested YXM’s inculpatory statements and requested that YXM “be cross-examined in court. However, YXM did not testify in the courtroom, and her statements were accepted.

Other developments

Information sources