Court upholds death penalty for man in car-crush murder

The Fujian Province High Court yesterday upheld the death sentence for a man who crushed the husband of a woman he harassed to death with his car.

He Wei was sentenced to death for intentional homicide and ordered to pay the victim's family 640,000 yuan (US$ 102,720) in compensation by a court in Zhangzhou City in March.

He appealed the court ruling, arguing that he was drunk and surrendered himself to the police, and compensated the family with money.

The high court said that though the convict drank a lot that day, he was still able to drive smoothly and rolled over the man whose wife he had harassed.

After killing the man, He contacted a friend to drive him to another county in Fujian. This indicates he was still clear-minded, the high court said.

The victim was chased to his house gate and the victim's action of crashing the windshield of He's car with a brick was regarded as self-defense, the court said.