Lawyers pin wrongful execution hopes on judicial files

The Higher People's Court in Shandong province has agreed to lawyers reading judicial documents relating to a high-profile case of a man executed for allegedly raping and murdering a woman 20 years ago, Beijing-based media reported on Monday.

Lawyers representing Nie Shubin said they had received notice from the court inviting them to go through and copy judicial materials related to the case, according to the Mirror, or Legal Evening News.

Nie was executed in 1995 at the age of 21 for the 1994 rape and murder of a woman in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province. In 2005, Wang Shujin, then 47, confessed to the crime.

Wang said during questioning that he had raped and killed the woman in a cornfield on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang in 1994 and that Nie was innocent.

Hebei's Higher People's Court, which approved Nie's death penalty, did not believe Wang's claim in a 2013 retrial and said Nie's verdict stood. Since then, the case attracted increasing public attention.

Lawyers have long complained that the Hebei Higher People's Court did not allow them to read documents before the case was sent to Shandong for reinvestigation as required by the Supreme People's Court.

In December last year, the Shandong court said five judges had begun reviewing the case and that they would try to push forward the investigation.

In a similar case, a man named Hugjiltu from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was convicted of the rape and murder of a woman in a public toilet in the regional capital Hohhot in April 1996, sentenced to death and executed a month later.

In 2005, another man, Zhao Zhihong, confessed to the murder. On Dec 5 last year Hugjiltu was acquitted and earlier this year Zhao was sentenced to death for rape, murder and robbery.