Parents strove to live long enough to clear son

Zhang Huanzhi, the mother of Nie Shubin, who was executed for rape and murder, talks on Friday to the media outside the court in Shenyang, Liaoning province, that overturned his conviction. LU YAO/CHINA DAILY

Zhang Huanzhi, a bereaved mother in her 70s, finally got the not guilty verdict for her son that she awaited.

Her fight for justice began the very moment her son, Nie Shubin, was arrested for murder in 1994. And the confession in 2005 of another man, Wang Shujin, who claimed he was the actual murderer, gave her additional power and courage to continue.

In March 2005, Zhang hired a lawyer and began the legal process to clear the name of her son. Soon after the appeal, the provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee in Hebei said it would set up a joint investigative group with other judicial departments in the province to look into the case.

However in the decade since, no positive decisions were made in Nie's case.

It was not until December 2014, when the Supreme People's Court, the country's top court, ordered a retrial of Nie's case in Shandong High People's Court that the family found hope in their excruciating struggle for justice.

Nie's mother said she was relieved when the top court designated the court in Shandong to review her son's case.

She had visited the Hebei High People's Court multiple times since 2005 requesting that her son's case be reviewed, but always in vain.

"I'm more than thrilled," Zhang said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency in 2014. "The decision is a reflection that the country's judicial system is improving."

"My husband and I often say to ourselves we have to strive to live until the day my son's name is cleared," the mother said.

"I have so much regret because I did not even get to see my son before he was killed," Zhang said. "The only thing I could do was to try to prove his innocence to ease my pain."

Nie's father, Nie Xuesheng, said on Friday that it was the happiest day in more than 20 years since his son was executed.

The father attempted suicide the day after he learned of his son's execution from a staff member of the prison grocery shop on April 28, 1995. He had come to visit his son and give him a shirt.

The suicide attempt left him paralyzed in one of his legs, so his wife made most of the trips to the court asking for a retrial.

The father told Beijing News that he accepted the apology from the Provincial High People's Court in Hebei on Friday.

"Justice delayed is still justice," he said.