Chinese Teen Sentenced To Life Imprisonment For Classmate’s Murder

Chinese Teen Sentenced To Life Imprisonment For Classmate’s Murder

 

 

A teenage boy in China has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his classmate, in a case that has ignited a national debate on the treatment of juvenile offenders.

The boy, identified by his surname Zhang, was found guilty of intentional homicide by a court in Hebei Province on Monday. He and two other boys, all under 14 years old at the time of the crime, were accused of persistently bullying their 13-year-old classmate, surnamed Wang, before murdering him in April.

The court heard that the suspects attacked Wang with a shovel before burying his body in an abandoned greenhouse. The gruesome details of the case sparked widespread public outcry and renewed focus on the handling of serious crimes involving minors.

Of the other two suspects, one, surnamed Li, received a 12-year prison sentence, while the third, surnamed Ma, was ordered to undergo correctional education, as the court found he did not directly harm the victim.

The case is among the first to apply China’s 2021 amendment to its criminal code, which lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 for “special cases,” such as those involving extreme violence resulting in death.

The court stated that the defendants, being “over the age of 12 but under the age of 14 at the time of the crime,” were criminally responsible under the revised law. The ruling cited the “particularly cruel” means and “particularly vile” circumstances of the killing.

China’s legal framework prescribes life imprisonment or the death penalty for murder, though the latter is not applied to minors. This landmark ruling underscores the country’s evolving approach to balancing accountability and rehabilitation for juvenile offenders.

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