Chinese teen gets death sentence for murder of classmate in “particularly cruel” way
A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a teenager to life in prison for murdering a classmate, ending a case that sparked a nationwide debate over the treatment of juvenile offenders.
The three suspects, all under 14 at the time of the murder, were accused in April of bullying a 13-year-old classmate named Wang before killing him in an abandoned greenhouse.
The killer reportedly attacked Wang with a shovel before burying his body, and the brutal details of the case have drawn public attention to how the law deals with teenagers accused of serious crimes.
A boy surnamed Zhang was found guilty of intentional homicide, a court in Hebei Province said on Monday.
Another boy named Li was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The third boy, surnamed Ma, was found by the court to have not harmed the victim and was sentenced to discipline.
In 2021, China will lower the age of criminal responsibility for “special cases” such as “causing death by extremely cruel methods” from 14 to 12 years old.
The Hebei case is considered one of the first to apply a lower age limit.
The prosecutor said that because the defendants “were over 12 years old but under 14 years old when they committed the crime… they should bear criminal responsibility under Chinese law.”
The statement also said that the killing method was “particularly cruel and the circumstances were particularly abominable.”
Under Chinese law, murder is punishable by imprisonment or death.
