Murder of Yao Jiaxin

The murder case of Yao Jiaxin refers to an intentional homicide triggered by a traffic accident on October 20, 2010 committed by Yao Jiaxin. After Yao hit the victim Zhang Miao, he stabbed her to death when he found Zhang memorizing his license plate number. Yao was put on trial on March 23, 2011 and was sentenced to death on June 7, 2011. This case was brought into public’s attention because of the heated discussion on the internet over Yao’s family background and whether death penalty should be abolished.

Summary

At the night of October 20, 2010, Yao Jiaxin, a student at Xi’an Conservatory of Music, hit a woman named Zhang Miao with his Chevrolet. When he got out of the car, he found Zhang trying to memorize his license plate number. As he was afraid that Zhang would blackmail him over this accident as she was a rural peasant, he took out a knife and stabbed her eight times until she died.^[1] When he was trying to escape, he hit two other people on the road and was caught on the spot. However, the police released him because of lack of evidence. The police did not manage to connect the two accidents together and charged him of murder until October 22.^[2]

Yao confessed to his crime on October 23, and was put on trial on March 23, 2011 at the Xi’an Intermediate People’s Court. Since he had shown remorse for the murder, it was quite likely that he will escape the death penalty. However, after this case being exposed by the media and discussed heatedly on the internet, most netizens demanded death penalty of Yao. On the one hand, netizens probed some information of Yao through Human Flesh Search. They found that Yao’s father was a military representative in Xi’an, so they claimed that Yao was not only a rich second generation(as the fact he owned a Chevrolet) but also one of generation of the officials' children while Chinese netizens tend to hate rich people and government officials spontaneously. On the other hand, a crime psychologist, Li Meijin’s comment on this case in a interview on China Central Television was attacked by many netizens. She thought that Yao’s behavior of stabbing the woman eight times was related to his miserable experiences of playing piano during his childhood. ‘His behavior of stabbing the victim eight times could have been a mechanical repetition of him hitting the piano keys’, said Li.^[3] However, her words were seen as a stupid excuse of Yao. Netizens called her the 'defender of a muederer' and also launched a Human flesh search engine to discredit her.^[4] Many netizens thought that the state media was diased as it just had media coverage of the murderer while did not care about the victim.

Discussion

The Education System

During the trial, the lawyer of Yao pleaded for leniency by saying Yao was a 'model student',owning many awards for academic excellence.^[5]

This was very ironic and led to heated discussion over the Chinese education system. While most parents only care about children's grades, they do not care about their personality. Such a rigid education deprives children of their natural development and make them indifferent about life.^[6]

Abolition of Death Penalty

There was a heated debate on the internet by many public figures about whether should abolith the capital punishment in China, which was triggered by the murder case of Yao.^[7] According to an online survey on whether Yao should get the death penalty by Yahoo, 96.5% (10,710 out of 11,100)of the respondents demanded death penalty of Yao.^[8] One of the reasons of the widespread public outrage towards Yao is that they were afraid that China would be controlled by the law of the jungle.^[9]

Result of Trial and Responses

Yao was given the death penalty by the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court on April 22, 2011.^[10] He appealed after the trial but was rejected. The Supreme People's Court (SPC) reviewed the case and concluded that the first and second trial were accurate.'The motive was extremely despicable, the measures extremely cruel and the consequences extremely serious,'said the SPC.^[11]

Public reaction towards the execution varied on the internet. Some claimed that it was a victory of public action over privileged class, while others considered Yao as a victim of cyberstalking/online mobs.^[12]

Related Articles

• Li Gang incident

Reference

1. ^ Lam, Oiwan. "China: The Murder Case of Yao Jiaxin". GlobalVoices. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/04/21/china-the-murder-case-of-yao-jiaxin/. 
2. ^ Wines, Michael. "Execution in a Killing That Fanned Class Rancor". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/world/asia/08china.html. 
3. ^ Chen, Shuze. "Chinese People Say "Yao" to Death Penalty". USC Annenberg China Media. http://ascportfolios.org/chinaandmedia/2011/04/04/chinese-people-say-%E2%80%9Cyao%E2%80%9D-to-death-penalty/. 
4. ^ Lin, Meilian. "Legal Expert Says Murder Case not Ideal Symbol of Campaign to Abolish Death Penalty". Global Times. http://special.globaltimes.cn/2011-04/646927.html. 
5. ^ Lin, Meilian. "Legal Expert Says Murder Case not Ideal Symbol of Campaign to Abolish Death Penalty". Global Times. http://special.globaltimes.cn/2011-04/646927.html. 
6. ^ "ChinaScope 69: Who killed Yao Jiaxin?". China Elections and Governance. 
7. ^ Lin, Meilian. "Legal Expert Says Murder Case not Ideal Symbol of Campaign to Abolish Death Penalty". Global Times. http://special.globaltimes.cn/2011-04/646927.html. 
8. ^ Lin, Meilian. "Legal Expert Says Murder Case not Ideal Symbol of Campaign to Abolish Death Penalty". Global Times. http://special.globaltimes.cn/2011-04/646927.html. 
9. ^ Lam, Oiwan. "China: The Murder Case of Yao Jiaxin". GlobalVoices. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/04/21/china-the-murder-case-of-yao-jiaxin/. 
10. ^ "Murderous Driver Yao Jiaxin Executed". China Daily. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-06/07/content_12649653.htm. 
11. ^ "Murderous Driver Yao Jiaxin Executed". China.org.cn. http://www.china.org.cn/china/2011-06/07/content_22728216.htm. 
12. ^ Wines, Michael. "Execution in a Killing That Fanned Class Rancor". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/world/asia/08china.html.