China Supreme Court Overturns Death Sentences for Pair Convicted of Child Prostitution

China Supreme Court Overturns Death Sentences for Pair Convicted of Child Prostitution
Jun 13, 2014 By eChinacities.com

China’s Supreme Court annulled the death sentences that had been previously handed down to Zhou Junhui and Qin Xing, convicted of forcing a 10 year old girl into prostitution.

The two were found guilty of rape, organizing prostitution and forcing others into prostitution on July 5 2012. The case attracted huge amounts of media attention, both for the heinous nature of the crime, and the subsequent incarceration of the victims mother; Tang Hui was put into one of China’s now defunct ‘reeducation camps’, after she campaigned for more severe sentences for Zhou and Qin.

Tang was sentenced to eighteen months at the camp for ‘seriously disturbing social order and exerting a negative impact on society’ but was released after only eight days due to enormous public pressure. Tang then went on to successfully sue the Hunan People’s Court, for psychological damage and ‘infringement of freedom’.

The victim, who was ten years old at the time, was threatened and intimidated into working as a prostitute, and repeatedly raped by Zhou, leaving her with post traumatic stress disorder.

Zhou and Qin will be resentenced soon in the Hunan People’s Court. In China, the Supreme Court reserves the right to review death sentences before they are carried out, in an attempt to prevent miscarriages of justice.

In this case, the death sentence was revoked as the crime wasn’t deemed to be “extremely serious in terms of violence, threat or circumstance” and thus doesn’t warrant the death penalty.

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Keywords: China Supreme Court Annuls Death Sentences for Pair Convicted of Child Prostitution

16 Comments

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JacobJohn

Did I read correctly: "the crime wasn’t deemed to be “extremely serious in terms of violence, threat or circumstance”????/ Please tell me that I did read incorrectly, indeed! Please tell me that the commute of the sentence was not even under these assumptions nor these reasons were ever told. I wish, right now, believe that I were only delusional. If the prostitution of a child could be looked upon it that way, then there is no more faith in China justice, ever, never, ever, never again. Shame on you China, if your "wisdom" goes this short. SHAME ON YOU! I am against death penalty, but stating such things, it's more humiliation on the soul of that little 10 years old girl. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME on you, CHINA!

Jun 15, 2014 18:57 Report Abuse

Englteachted

Kara: You are not being reasonable. In the USA , the law stipulates that Child rape/ porn is punishable by 'X-Y' years in jail. If a judge sentences a perp who was found guilty of the actual charge (and not a lesser charge)to anything less than the prescribed sentence guidelines they would lose their job. In practice, the minimum 'X' is reserved for those that co-operate and help bust bigger fish or there are some circumstances surrounding the case . In China, my understanding is that there is only one penalty set for this crime, death. When I saw the title I assumed that maybe there was a very good reason as in some new info that may suggest that they were not complicit. "Zhou and Qin will be resentenced soon in the Hunan People’s Court. In China, the Supreme Court reserves the right to review death sentences before they are carried out, in an attempt to prevent miscarriages of justice. In this case, the death sentence was revoked as the crime wasn’t deemed to be “extremely serious in terms of violence, threat or circumstance” and thus doesn’t warrant the death penalty." Do you agree with this statement? Raping a 10 year old, not extremely serious in terms of violence, threat or circumstance? That says a lot about Chinese culture. Again this comes from my limited understanding of Chinese law, if a woman (adult), of her own will decides to video tape herself masturbating and sells the video onlineb she will be sentenced to death. Next example I know for sure, a drunk driver gets in an accident and crashes into another car, killing the driver. He is sentenced to death. So under Chinese law both crimes are punishable by death, why does the duo who raped and forced a 10 year old into prostitution get a reprieve? How can any human being defend this?

Jun 15, 2014 05:55 Report Abuse

WCG

A friend's son (21) of the in-laws drove drunk and killed grandpa and grandson. He was facing 8 years in prison, but the defendant's family paid the injured family and the boys sentence was reduced to 2 years. He's out now and still drinks. The way I see the Chinese legal system is simple. "No harm, no foul." Only if someone makes a stink about the issue, the government acts. If a payment can satisfy the offense, then it is considered justice. They do not have any sense of punitive punishment or criminalization. Every thing is considered a civil case here. Plea bargaining is at its extreme. Another way to look at it is that the government is unwilling to go out of its way to punish, therefore making it a lazy criminal system. Equality, human rights, and other Western virtues are all contingent upon having money in China. I've had some personal experiences with the legal system here and it's 100% true.

Jun 16, 2014 10:01 Report Abuse

WCG

Does anyone know if these guys will get it good in prison? I mean, usually serious crimes against women and children in the USA, especially sex crimes, the real punishment comes when they land in jail and are found dead a week later with a broom stick shoved up their ass. Will a Chinese prison treat these guys similarly?

Jun 15, 2014 00:10 Report Abuse

Englteachted

Crimes against women and girls are not considered serious here. Especially girls, the thinking is sick and I will not repeat the things Chinese men have said to me.

Jun 15, 2014 05:57 Report Abuse

puffudder

Perhaps they could send Zhou & Qin off to a prison in Africa, ... where they'll be violently and repeatedly raped, contract aids, and die a painful death. Everybody wins.

Jun 15, 2014 00:02 Report Abuse

bill8899

They put the mother in jail? Zhou repeatedly raped a TEN-year old and his sentence is overturned? Someone got paid off. They will just do it again.

Jun 14, 2014 08:34 Report Abuse

Karajorma

They weren't released. The death sentence was overturned. They're still probably going to spend a long time in jail.

Jun 14, 2014 16:27 Report Abuse

Englteachted

Bill I think the govt was sending a message to the mother of the child, but the CCP officials are too stupid to realize that they are sending the wrong message to the general public.

Jun 15, 2014 06:00 Report Abuse

JacobJohn

Englteachted, that's right. It sends a dangerous wrong message in and off China. bill8899. Unfortunately, they've encouraged these animals to go for more.

Jun 15, 2014 19:16 Report Abuse

Vyborg

Let's rejoice in the fact that enormous public pressure saved this mother from, ehem, 'justice'. It seems like the People's Court or the Supreme Court hardly know what they're doing but the people have made themselves heard at least this once.

Jun 13, 2014 21:54 Report Abuse

Robk

Wow... I think the federal government should step into this case before it seriously reaches across the world and messes with the minds of the Chinese nationals. Imprison the mother for wanting stern justice? Let two child rapists and human sex traffickers off the death penalty because "the extreme violence" wasn't serious enough? These guys are clowns... Obviously the rapists have some guanxi or this wouldn't even be an issue. This is amazingly stupid, beyond human comprehension... even animals wouldn't be this stupid.

Jun 13, 2014 21:41 Report Abuse

Karajorma

Let me just ask you this. How many child molesters does your country execute every year? My guess is zero. While this is a serious case and those two deserve to rot in jail, let's not be stupid enough to complain that China has decided to imprison criminals for this kind of offence rather than executing them. That's actually a step closer to Western justice systems, not a step away from it.

Jun 14, 2014 16:26 Report Abuse

bill8899

oh god the inevitable 'Let me just ask you this" post.

Jun 14, 2014 19:31 Report Abuse

Robk

That's NOT the point. You don't imprison the mother of a rape victim, give the accused the death sentence and then overturn it. I don't care about the sentence itself it just sends the wrong message. Personally, I prefer they live... if a Chinese prison was like others around the world... these guys will wish they were dead when other inmates/guards find out they were child molesters.

Jun 15, 2014 00:02 Report Abuse

bill8899

I'm afraid you're right.

Jun 14, 2014 08:35 Report Abuse