Another Sun Xiaoguo? Death sentence for drug trafficking overturned to acquittal in less than a year.
The news of "Hong Kong businessman carrying 24 kg of drugs sentenced to death in Beijing" once caused a sensation. A Hong Kong man surnamed Huang, over sixty years old, arrived at Beijing Capital Airport from Brazil. While preparing to transfer to Hong Kong, customs officers seized nearly 24 kg of cocaine from his two checked suitcases. Huang claimed he was entrusted by a friend to transport the suitcases from Brazil to Hong Kong and insisted he was unaware of the drugs inside. A Beijing intermediate court issued a first-instance verdict, sentencing Huang to death for drug smuggling.
Yet in a nearly identical case, Shenzhen police arrested a Hong Kong businessman surnamed Sun suspected of carrying 1 kg of drugs. He also claimed he was "entrusted by a friend" and was ultimately acquitted. According to Article 347 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, Sun would have faced the severe penalties of death, death with a reprieve, or life imprisonment. But for such a serious crime, he was acquitted in less than a year. How did he manage to navigate the process step by step?
Case reconstruction:
Sun, a Hong Kong businessman living and investing in Shenzhen, was entrusted by a friend to carry a tightly sealed "gift" (later confirmed to be drugs) from Hong Kong through customs to a hotel in Guangzhou. He was to deliver the "gift" to a friend of his friend. When Sun arrived at the designated location, instead of the person to receive the "gift," a large group of police officers rushed toward him. Sun was arrested on the spot for suspected drug possession, and the "gift" was verified as drugs at the scene. The court subsequently prepared to charge Sun with "organized drug trafficking."
According to Article 347 of the Criminal Law, the crime of smuggling, trafficking, transporting, or manufacturing drugs requires the intentional act of knowingly engaging in these activities. The subjective element of this crime must be intent, specifically direct intent—knowing the substance is drugs while smuggling, trafficking, transporting, or manufacturing it. Negligence does not constitute this crime.
From the perspective of criminal constitution, whether Sun committed drug trafficking hinges on whether he can be deemed to have acted intentionally. Although Sun claimed ignorance, he was caught red-handed with the criminal evidence. The "caught in the act with the goods" made his defense particularly weak, and the drug trafficking charge seemed almost certain.
Subsequently, Sun's wife consulted with lawyers from multiple sources and ultimately chose lawyers from Zhiming Law Firm. With the operation of Zhiming Law Firm's team, in April of the same year, Sun, who could have been sentenced to death, was released in less than a month. In order to exonerate Sun, Wang Tengfeng went to great lengths.
In the situation where Sun was "stolen and obtained", the legal team of Zhiming Law Firm decided to break through the almost impossible dead end of "Sun did not know it was drugs" and exonerate him on the grounds that Sun did not have subjective intent.
After a brief investigation, they learned that the Shenzhen police only had the objective fact of seizing 1 kilogram of drugs on the spot and a clue about phone contact between Sun and a member of a foreign drug trafficking syndicate. However, the police had not arrested the "upstream" supplier who sent the drugs, nor the "downstream" recipient. Sun consistently insisted he had no idea the "gift" contained drugs. This made the drugs seized by the police the sole piece of evidence.
According to the principle of presumption of innocence. The lawyer team of Zhiming immediately utilized the 29th tactic of the Thirty Six Stratagems of the Art of War, "Blooming on a Tree" - in the game, when one's own strength is weak and at a disadvantage, one must conceal their weakness and create momentum to intimidate the enemy. Although the police took advantage of the fact that there was no other evidence to prove that Sun knew the "gift" was drugs, they insisted that the client Sun was not aware. Afterwards, they stuck paper flowers of "isolated evidence", "suspected crime", and "illegal detention" on the tree of "Sun is innocent" to strengthen their own reputation. Under the pressure of being unable to prove and unable to illegally detain for a long time, the police had to release Sun.
In this way, Sun, who should have been sentenced to death, death with a reprieve, or life imprisonment, was acquitted and released in April of the same year. Later, Lawyer Zhiming mentioned the case in his book "Lawyer's Victory - Analysis of Classic Cases in Literary Rights Litigation". He said that we don't know whether Sun knew it was drugs, and Sun was caught on the spot and paid a large amount of drugs, which can be considered as "stolen goods and gains". This puts our defense at a disadvantage. But we know that Ming Law Firm has its own sophisticated literary and artistic rights litigation, which is why Sun was acquitted and escaped unscathed. Therefore, if you encounter difficult and complex cases, you still need to find lawyers who master advanced litigation techniques, just like seeking experienced doctors for serious illnesses. If you rely on others for your life and fortune, of course, you need to be cautious.
