Twenty years ago, a wife and child were killed, a verdict brought the curtain down

Compiled from: Liupanshui Intermediate People's Court, The Paper
 
22 years after the incident, Li Yuqian from Guizhou was retried and sentenced in the 'murder of wife and child' case.
 
Case review
On September 6, the Liupanshui Intermediate People's Court of Guizhou Province held a public first-instance trial for the case in which the Guizhou High People's Court had remanded for retrial, involving defendant Li Yuqian for intentional homicide, defendant Meng Ruihong for harboring a criminal, and associated criminal civil litigation. Li Yuqian was sentenced to death for intentional homicide with a two-year reprieve and deprived of political rights for life; Meng Ruihong was sentenced to eight years in prison for harboring a criminal. A judgment was also made on the associated civil part according to the law.

 

In March 2001, Li Yu's ex-wife Xie Chuming and their 3-year-old son were killed. Subsequently, Li Yuqian, then director of the cast iron workshop and Party branch secretary of the ironmaking plant at Guizhou Liupanshui Shuicheng Steel (Group) Co., Ltd., and his mistress Meng Ruihong were accused of murder, dismemberment, and throwing the body into a blast furnace for burning.
 
Back then, prosecutors accused Li Yuqian of strangling his wife Xie Chuming after returning home in the early hours of March 20, 2001, and then smothering their awakened son Li Minghao with a pillow. Around 9 p.m. that night, Li Yuqian brought his mistress Meng Ruihong, and together they dismembered the body and placed it into four woven bags. Afterwards, Meng Ruihong used a basket to transfer Xie Chuming's body parts in batches to the blast furnace of the ironmaking plant for incineration.
 
On September 10, 2001, the Liupanshui Intermediate People's Court's first-instance judgment: Li Yuqian was found guilty of intentional homicide and sentenced to death, with deprivation of political rights for life; Meng Ruihong was found guilty of harboring a criminal and sentenced to 8 years in prison.
 
During the trial, Li Yuqian recanted in court, claiming that he had been tortured to confess, and stated that he had a good relationship with his wife and had no motive to kill her, asserting that he was framed by Meng Ruihong.
 
On November 20, 2001, the Guizhou Provincial High Court ruled in the second instance that the case should be sent back to the Liupanshui Intermediate Court for retrial on the grounds of 'unclear facts and insufficient evidence.' On December 1, 2003, the Liupanshui Intermediate Court once again found Li Yuqian guilty of intentional homicide, but commuted the sentence to death with a two-year reprieve. On October 12, 2004, the Guizhou Provincial High Court made a final ruling, upholding the first-instance judgment.
 
After this, Li Yuqian continued to appeal while in prison. Also advocating for Li Yuqian was his mother-in-law Zhang Linhe, who, holding materials written by Li Yuqian himself, traveled back and forth with her husband between Dafang County and Liupanshui City, petitioning various levels of government.
 
Many years later, the Guizhou High Court decided to retrial the case.
 
On September 16, 2020, the Guizhou Provincial High Court held a retrial of this case. On September 28 of the same year, the Guizhou Provincial High Court announced the retrial verdict, ruling to revoke the original first and second instance judgments and remand the case to the Liupanshui Intermediate Court for a new trial. After review, the Guizhou Provincial High Court believed that the original first-instance procedure violated the relevant procedural regulations regarding witnesses testifying in court, presentation of appraisal conclusions, and reappraisal. The original judgment's determination of Li Yuqian's intentional homicide involved doubts and contradictions, which could affect a fair trial.
 
At 9 a.m. on November 23, 2022, the Liupanshui Intermediate People's Court held a retrial for Li Yuqian on the charge of intentional homicide. The court sessions lasted a total of 6 days, but no verdict was delivered in court. On December 22 of the same year, after several sentence reductions, Li Yuqian was released from prison.
 
 

"Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China"

Article 232: Crime of intentional homicide
Whoever intentionally commits homicide shall be sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years; if the circumstances are minor, to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years.
 
 
[1] The author's perspective
As the saying goes, even a tiger that is fierce does not eat its own cubs. Humans, being flesh and blood, live in a society governed by morality and law. When it comes to extramarital affairs or killing one's wife and children, it is simply appalling! Li Yuqian not only had an affair during his marriage, but for his own selfish interests, he cruelly killed his lawful wife and biological children, even dismembering them and disposing of the parts in a furnace. This shows that his mind and spirit were already blinded. After many years, the case finally came to an end. Li Yuqian destroyed not only his own life, but also two families. This shows that while everyone has desires, they should have limits, and must not harm the property or lives of others. Otherwise, no matter how much time passes, one’s crimes cannot be hidden.