Anger after 'murdered' wife returns

[emad]

Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Thursday April 7, 2005
The Guardian

China's justice system is being haunted by a "murdered" woman who has turned up alive and well 11 years after police tortured her husband into confessing to her supposed killing.

The sudden reappearance of Zhang Zaiyu - who ran off, rather than being dumped in a reservoir as detectives claimed - has embarrassed law enforcement authorities and strengthened calls for penal reform in a country that executes more prisoners than any other.

Ms Zhang's husband, She Xianglin, was sentenced to death in 1974, soon after his wife went missing from their village in Hubei province. The evidence against him was the unidentified body of a woman found in a nearby lake, the accusations of Ms Zhang's family and his own "confession".

According to the Xinhua news agency, the former security guard was deprived of sleep during 10 days of interrogation until he signed a document pleading guilty to murder. A higher court later commuted the death sentence to 15 years in jail.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1453627,00.html

[myrna minx]

1. Good thing he wasn't convicted in Texas under the reign of Little Boots.

[forgethell]

4. True, but

they don't torture 'em in Texas.

[Gold Metal Flake]

5. I remember a time when they did.

How sure are you that they don't now?

[forgethell]

6. Fairly sure.

Certainly not as policy.

Go back long enough, and all our ancestors were cannibals. But I'm not responsible for them.

[emanymton]

2. US Supreme Court - Innocence Does Not Trump Jury Verdict Of Guilty

[Demit]

3. slightly delayed reporting?

Sentenced to death in 74; 11 years later wife turns up; man released. They just finish the paperwork over there or what?

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Misprint for 1994

see eg http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3238106a4560,00.html

This is The Guardian; it has a reputation for misprints to keep up, even in the electronic age.