Commentary
Delivering justice means making the police accountable As a newly-discovered wrongful conviction rekindles public ire over the use of torture to extract confessions, the government is under pressure to deliver on its promise of justice for all By Deng Yuwen
I
n a keynote speech in February, Chinese President Xi Jinping In the wake of the wrongful conviction, Zhang was acquitted pledged that the government will work hard to ensure that the and freed, and the Zhejiang Province authorities claimed to have public feels that justice is served consistently in the legal system. set up a joint investigation team to look into perversions of justice Now, with media reports of a wrongful conviction of two people in involving police officers, including Nie. Zhejiang Province, Xi’s pledge is already being put to the test. However, there is reason to doubt whether such investigations Convicted of raping and murderwill lead anywhere. In a similar ing a young woman in 2003, Zhang case, Nie Shubin (no relation to The public is becoming increasingly Gaoping and his nephew Zhang Nie Haifen), a 21-year-old villager Hui were given a life sentence and in Hebei Province was executed for aware of the use of torture to extract 15 years in prison respectively. Afthe rape and murder of a woman confessions in criminal cases in China ter serving for more than ten years, in 1995. But in 2005, convicted sea recent DNA test has revealed that rial killer Wang Shujin confessed to the two are innocent, and revealed police that he was the real culprit. the real culprit to be a man who had already been executed for a However, despite Wang’s detailed confession and persistent meseparate murder. dia inquiries over the past eight years, the authorities have refused A closer review of Zhang’s case reveals significant flaws in almost to bring justice to Nie’s family. Hebei officials claim that the case is every legal procedure that led to his wrongful conviction. Accord- “too complicated,” and is still under investigation. What is coming to Zhang, he was severely beaten up by an inmate during his plicated may not be the case itself, but the relationships between detention, and was provided with a confession paper to sign. Court police officers, many of whom have been promoted to senior posidocuments show that the key evidence against Zhang came from tions following their involvement in the case. This complex web of the same inmate, who claimed that he had heard Zhang talking considerations will not only obstruct justice, but will jeopardize the about having committed the crime. Zhang’s lawyer later found the legitimacy of China’s judicial system. inmate had also made a similar claim in another unrelated case that Wrongful detention and conviction exists in any country, but the led to his own sentence being commuted, suggesting possible collu- question is whether a judicial system will strive to minimize the sion with police officers. chance of such things happening, and whether it will take swift The public is becoming increasingly aware of the use of torture to action to restore justice when a wrongful conviction is discovered. extract confessions in criminal cases in China, perhaps the biggest In order to restore confidence that the government is serious threat to the justice that President Xi has called for. Ironically, there about and capable of ensuring justice for the masses, the authorities is so far no sign that the authorities are taking serious action to tack- should not only bring justice to wrongfully convicted citizens, but le the issue. For example, Nie Haifen, the chief detective responsible also show determination in holding the police accountable for their for the case at the time, was previously portrayed by local police as wrongdoings. a “heroine detective,” maintaining a “100 percent detection rate in more than 350 major cases.” (The author is a senior media commentator.)
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NEWSCHINA I June 2013