One life lost, two years in prison, three years of probation, forty thousand yuan.
Compiled from The Paper
Case review
In 2016, Fang Yangyang's father accepted a bride price of 130,000 yuan and married his 19-year-old daughter, who had an intellectual disability, to the Zhang family. Later, the Zhang family discovered that Fang Yangyang could not conceive, and they demanded that the Fang family return the bride price, which the Fang family refused. The mother-in-law Liu Lanying said, 'We spent all our family assets to marry Fang Yangyang,' and 'Her inability to conceive makes the whole family very angry.' As a result, the Zhang family began a series of ruthless abuses against Fang Yangyang.
The Zhang family made Fang Yangyang go hungry, beat her with wooden sticks, force her to stand outside in the winter as punishment, and not allow her to contact her relatives, etc. In just over two years, Fang Yangyang’s weight dropped from 160 jin when she got married to only over 60 jin due to malnutrition, with 43% of her body injured. Finally, on January 31, 2019, after being beaten and starved once again, Fang Yangyang passed away at the age of only 22.
Relevant legal provisions
"Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China"
Article 260 Crime of Abuse
Abusing a family member, in cases of particularly egregious circumstances, shall be punished with fixed-term imprisonment of up to two years, criminal detention, or control. If the aforementioned crime causes the victim to suffer serious injury or death, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of more than two years but less than seven years. The crime in the first paragraph shall only be prosecuted upon complaint, except where the victim is incapable of complaining or is unable to complain due to coercion or intimidation.
[1] Court Opinion
On January 22, 2020, the People's Court of Yucheng City, Shandong Province, made a first-instance judgment in this case. For the crime of abuse, Fang Yangyang's father-in-law was sentenced to three years in prison; Fang Yangyang's mother-in-law was sentenced to two years and two months in prison; Fang Yangyang's husband was sentenced to two years in prison, with a three-year probation. In addition, this judgment also ordered the Zhang family to compensate the plaintiff of the related civil lawsuit (i.e., Fang Yangyang's mother) for funeral expenses, lost wages, and transportation costs, totaling 42,562 yuan.
Later, this verdict sparked heated discussion among netizens due to the sentence being considered 'too light.' On February 19, 2020, the Dezhou Intermediate People's Court revoked the original verdict and sent the case back for retrial. The case will be reopened on November 27.
[1] The author's perspective
After the judgment was made public, netizens believed that the sentence was too light because the first-instance verdict in this case was for abuse, and for abuse resulting in death, the maximum sentence is only seven years of imprisonment. In this case, Fang Yangyang's father-in-law was only sentenced to three years, while Fang Yangyang's husband was sentenced to just two years in prison with a three-year probation. At this point, the public could not help but wonder: why was it abuse rather than intentional homicide?
The author believes that the biggest distinction between abuse leading to death and intentional homicide lies in the aspect of subjective intent. In the former, the offender's subjective intent is to abuse the victim's body and torment the victim's mind, rather than to take their life; the victim's death is unexpected by the offender. In the latter, the offender's subjective intent is to take the victim's life. From this, it can be seen that in this case, over a period of two years, Zhang’s three family members only engaged in abusive behavior toward Yangyang, without the intention to take his life, and therefore should be convicted of abuse.
However, reality is often intricate, and human nature is unpredictable. In the span of two years, Fang Yangyang's body was ravaged to the point of being unrecognizable, and mentally he endured extraordinary torment. Under this prolonged cumulative harm, Fang Yangyang could no longer bear the physical pain and mental breakdown, and eventually left that dark world. Yet, such a long process of abuse cannot compare to a moment when a knife goes in and comes out instantly. Which is truly worse?
In addition, it is worth noting that the term 'family members' in the above legal provisions, in judicial practice in our country, turns the fact that the victim and the criminal have a family relationship into a 'get-out-of-jail-free card' for the criminal. A love that was once passionate and a blood-deep familial bond—when these softest things in the world transform into sticks that beat the body or daggers that pierce the flesh, what could be more heart-wrenching than such a stark contrast?
Life is supreme, and everyone should respect it. This respect should not be judged by another person's subjective malice, but by the harm done to me, because life only happens once, and once it's gone, it's gone.
