Prosecutors reject murderer's confession in 4th rape case

Wang Shujin is seen at yesterday's court hearing in north China's Shijiazhuang City. He said he was responsible for a rape and murder case that had led to another man being executed.

A man who claims he was responsible for a rape and murder for which another man was executed didn't commit the crime, prosecutors in north China's Hebei Province said yesterday.

Wang Shujin, 46, who was sentenced to death in March 2007 for killing three women after raping them, is appealing for a lighter sentence on the grounds that his confession to a 1994 killing in Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital, had been a "great contribution" to the police investigation and their search for the truth.

He made the confession at his appeal in July 2007 but prosecutors dismissed it at the time. However, the hearing ended without a verdict and it resumed yesterday at the Handan Intermediate People's Court.

In 1995, Nie Shubin, 21, was executed for the killing. Ever since, his mother, Zhang Huanzhi, 68, has been fighting to clear her son's name. She said Nie had told her he had only confessed after being beaten, according to the Xiaoxiang Morning Post.

The Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court sentenced him to death saying he had admitted all the charges against him.

Zhang had hoped her son would be exonerated after yesterday's hearing. But her hopes were dashed when prosecutors told the court Wang was innocent of the crime because details in his statement about the victim and the murder didn't accord with the facts.

Wang had been working at a construction site just 100 meters from the murder scene in August 1994 and was likely to have been one of the onlookers when police were carrying out their investigation, the court was told.

Wang had confessed to the crime when he was arrested in 2005, saying he pushed the woman off a bicycle, raped her and kicked her in the chest until she died, Xinhua news agency reported. He said he took the woman's dress as a gift for his wife and left her lying naked in a cornfield.

However, prosecutors said the woman was found in a white undershirt and nylon socks, with a colored shirt wrapped around her neck. She had no bone fractures and died of suffocation.

The two sides also disagreed on the time the crime was committed and on the height of the victim. Prosecutors showed an autopsy report, a crime scene investigation report and witness testimony during yesterday's proceedings.

Wang's attorney, Zhu Aimin, said it was the first time he had seen the evidence and the hearing was adjourned so he could examine it.

No date for a new hearing was given, China News Service reported.

At a meeting with his lawyer on Monday, Wang had insisted he carried out the crime and hadn't been put under any pressure to make a false confession.