Foreword
On Aug. 4, 2020, the Jiangxi Provincial High People’s Court reopened the trial of Zhang Yuhuan’s intentional homicide case, acquitting him on the grounds that the facts of the original trial were unclear and the evidence insufficient. 53-year-old Zhang Yuhuan had already served 27 years in prison when she received the acquittal. Zhang Yuhuan had written hundreds of complaints in prison, when desperate, had twice committed suicide, and then fear of suicide implicating future generations, only slowly change emotions, persisted. After seeing this report, I couldn’t help but think of the prisoners I had met, some of whom had their sentences commuted, some of whom had been acquitted, but more of whom had been released after their sentences. Many times, what happens to them is like a boat on the river, with the water flowing away, forever floating indefinitely. Song Jianping is one of them.
1
Song Jianping’s appearance is not good, belong to the crowd put in a moment can not find that kind of. Not quite handsome, but also will not let people feel annoyed.
He was sentenced to three years in prison for stabbing a local karaoke bar owner for helping a friend out at the age of 20, which led to the other party cutting off his spleen.
Except for meal time, Song Jianping came out early and returned late every day to participate in the practice of art labor, and before his release from prison he vowed, “Never set foot in prison again!”
After his release from prison, Song Jianping, with the help of his family, found a proper job at the Xinhua Bookstore in his hometown. During his work, he met his wife, and they soon married. His wife later gave birth to two daughters, and the family was happy and harmonious.
In order to earn more money, Song Jianping soon borrowed money to open a wholesale paper department, wholesale business is very good, but also let him become the first batch of local people to drive a private car.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.
I have read his verdict – on February 16, 2004, Song Jianping received a business call from Li Hongji, so he drove to Li Hongji’s store, saw that Li Hongji and his wife were not there, and came to the third floor to look for them, and saw Wang Juan, a young woman working alone on the third floor, so he had bad thoughts and raped Wang Juan. Three days later, Wang Juan reported to the police under the persuasion of Mr. and Mrs. Li Hongji.
After the verdict was announced, Song Jianping appealed against the verdict. After the Intermediate People’s Court accepted the appeal, it rejected the appeal and upheld the original verdict. He was then thrown into prison to serve his sentence.
After his admission, Song Jianping always disobeyed his rehabilitation.
He did radio gymnastics, but never sang prison songs; he was physically fit and did not pretend to be sick, but he did not work properly and was known as a “stubborn and dangerous prisoner”. He wrote a letter of complaint every night, insisting that he was wrongly accused, and wrote hundreds of letters. He wrote hundreds of letters and sent them everywhere to the Central and High Courts, but never heard back. In the long run, he became a bit broken. When in a bad mood, he also scolded his fellow inmates, and changed several prison blocks to serve his sentence, who did not want to take over, rotating in order, and then transferred to the prison block where I was.
The first time I talked to him, I asked him: “Song Jianping, tell me what’s going on, you can’t resist rehabilitation and break prison discipline. You are going to get an additional sentence for hitting someone.”
“How can I add it? I’ve been in prison, I didn’t injure anyone, I know the law. It’s okay to put me in here, I’m guilty, but I’m not guilty.”
“If you think the verdict is wrong, you can continue to appeal. That’s your right.”
“What’s the use of complaining? I’ve seen through it, there’s no place for people like me to reason.”
Not long after, Song Jianping violated prison rules again. That night watching TV, a convict because of his height, in front of him, he did not say anything, took a plastic stool and smashed the head of the prisoner, immediately knocked the prisoner down. Other inmates were terrified: “Report, someone was killed! Song Jianping has killed someone!”
The good thing is that the prisoner just passed out. I gave him a confinement order, and before I could announce it to him, he himself said, “I’ll go to the confinement room.”
The confinement room is a hut of less than one square meter, a large iron door separates the inside from the outside, there are no windows in the house, there is a small movable window on the iron door. The inmates on duty to the dinner point from this small window to hand him in, he stays inside every day, his feet can not be straight, sleep only curled up body, inside the 24 hours are dark.
Usually, prisoners are fed, but in the confinement cell, they are rationed. Work rations, do not work rations do not work. Song Jianping, who was physically strong, could not get enough to eat in the confinement cell, and finally could not take it anymore after a week, and said to me during my routine conversation with him, “I will never fight again, there is no way for me to live here. In addition, I would like to ask you one thing, can you please help me with the complaint. All my previous letters were written for nothing.” I thought he would take the initiative to review the matter of beating and scolding his fellow inmates to me after being locked up in there for seven days, but now it seems that his mind was not on that at all.
I promised him, but on the condition that there would be a deep review of the incident. Song Jianping’s review was quite profound in terms of word count, more than 5,000 words. But most of it was written about his past ……
2
At the age of 14, Song Jianping was in his second year of junior high school. At that time, his academic performance is not bad, in the class every examination can be to the top three, is a good student with good character and academic excellence.
One day after school, he was riding his bicycle in the direction of home, when a van suddenly came around. In the van sat seven or eight bald heads, they teased him: “Hey, kid, you dropped the money.”
Song Jianping touched his pocket and said, “I don’t have any money in my pocket.”
They also said, “Your tires are flat.”
Song Jianping looked backward at the tires, the air was quite sufficient, so he said, “It’s okay.” The van people did not tease him again, but drove forward.
There is a bridge toll station in front of the road, the van stopped after the toll station, and several bald men came down to take a leak. Song Jianping rode by, looked at them. They also saw Song Jianping, one of the thin man said: “Boy, you come here!”
He pushed his bike and walked over, just before the thin man, the thin man raised his hand is a slap, followed by seven or eight people on him is punching and kicking, while beating also yelled: “Let you see! Let you see ……”
Back home, Song Jianping hid under the covers alone and cried. At that time, his father was working abroad, his mother was playing mahjong every day, and came home late every day, and did not care much about him. That night, his mother came back very late as usual, and did not go to see him, did not know what happened to his son. Song Jianping said that if his mother had come to see him that night and comforted him, perhaps his life path would have been different.
After that, in order not to be bullied, he began to mix with some social loafers every day, nothing to go out and fight with them. Later, because of fighting accidents, he went to juvenile detention center several times, also once in prison. These he admitted, but this time, he said he was really wronged, since the last time he served his sentence, he was completely corrected, where he still dared to commit a crime.
That day, he did go to the third floor of Li Hongji’s store, but really did not do anything to that Wang Juan, saw her alone there, chatting for a while. Did not wait for Li Hongji, he left. Did not expect to happen later those things.
As far as I know, for the matter of Song Jianping complaint, the prison sentence enforcement section of the people had gone to the local intermediate people’s court, but no results, I think the case is more complex.
During the evening break, I carefully checked Song Jianping’s file and found that some of the things recorded in the verdict were really fishy. First, why did Mr. and Mrs. Li Hongji call him to go after Song Jianping went, and then they were not there? Second, why did the victim, Wang Juan, call the police only three days later, instead of the same day? Is this accidental or deliberate? There is really some room for imagination in it.
I also want to help him to check again, so I said: “You have a good transformation, before the complaint is not written, I’ll think about what to do.”
Song Jianping was happy to hear: “Then you sacrifice some time off, help me to do this.” The performance is a little better than the original.
3
Good times do not last long, not long after, Song Jianping again.
One day, he suddenly went on a hunger strike, and no one who spoke to him paid any attention. The timing of the hunger strike was also very special, just after the family meeting. The internal police rushed to retrieve the recording of his meeting to see if they could find any clues.
Through the recording, the problem was indeed found.
After Song Jianping was arrested, has been crying out for injustice, his wife hired a lawyer outside to defend him. Need money, his wife turned the wholesale paper department, the car was sold, and most of the money gained was spent on him. After he was sentenced to prison, his wife came to see him once a month.
That meeting, his wife inadvertently said the recent poor health, always back pain. Song Jianping then urged his wife to buy some nutritional supplements.
But his wife said, “It’s okay, I guess it’s the root of the disease from before.”
Song Jianping had not seen his wife suffer from any disease, so he asked what the root of the disease was. Probably his wife also realized that she had let slip the truth.
It turns out that, just after Song Jianping into the prison, his wife’s stomach slowly grew up. The hospital did an ultrasound and found that she was pregnant. The family’s two daughters are in elementary school, the monthly expenses is a considerable expenditure. Song Jianping in the detention center and the situation is unknown, the family’s burden is all on her. If the child is born, she will not be able to work for two years, and without a job there will be no source of income, which she cannot afford. After thinking about it, she went to the hospital to have an abortion only after the child was already four or five months old.
After the operation, she asked the doctor if the abortion was a boy or a girl. The doctor told her that it was a boy. Song Jianping had previously dreamed of a boy, his wife also wanted to fulfill this wish for him. But because of the prison sentence, everything became a mirage. And when Song Jianping knew all this, two years had passed.
The prison police discussed and agreed that the bell had to be tied. They first contacted his wife, planning to carry out family love into the prison to help.
But not until his wife came, that night, Song Jianping had another accident.
The beds in the prison are bunk beds, a room number 8 sets of beds, 16 bunks, he slept in the lower bunk near the toilet side. At night, Song Jianping still did not eat, to bedtime early lying down.
In the middle of the night, the night shift inmates in a trance, Song Jianping’s bed seems to be dripping water, get closer to see, scared him a lot, is blood – ripped the sheets, Song Jianping hands are full of blood, he slit his wrists, blood is leaking down the cooler drip.
The inmate on duty immediately pressed the alarm intercom system, Song Jianping suicide! Song Jianping was then rushed to the prison hospital for resuscitation.
From the scene, Song Jianping was using broken tiles to cut his wrists, as to how he picked up the broken tiles, only when he woke up to know. The next day, the entire prison organization to clear contraband, due to broken tiles through the security gate will not ring, in order to plug this loophole in the inflow of contraband, the prison district also set up additional search posts next to the security gate.
Fortunately, found in time, the injury is not very serious, only more blood loss unconscious, did not cause serious consequences. Later that day, Song Jianping woke up. Instructor Wang and I went to see him, walked into the prison hospital room, stood in front of the bed and observed for a while, no matter how we asked, Song Jianping just did not say a word.
Instructor Wang gestured toward me, and then pulled me up and walked out, “where this broken tile is from, only Song Jianping know. Must ask the source, the bureau is still waiting for our prison analysis.”
The next morning, Song Jianping’s breakfast was rich, a glass of milk, a piece of bread, an egg, plus a bowl of rice porridge, while the other patients continued to be steamed buns and rice porridge.
I sat in the monitoring room and watched his every move. When the correctional police left with the prisoner who brought the food, the other prisoners in the same ward stared at him. The scent of milk bread seemed to have whetted Song Jianping’s appetite, and he sat up, reaching for the bread, and found that the other prisoners in the same room were not eating and staring at him.
He slowly turned his gaze around, only to realize that he was the only one who got such treatment. Those stares were like knives, with greed, jealousy and even resentment.
At that moment, the correctional police shouted from outside the iron gate, “Why aren’t you eating? Not hungry? Then take it away!”
The inmates buried their heads in unison to eat, and there was a loud clattering sound. Song Jianping, with a mute face, strained to lie down.
At this time, the iron door opened and the hospital director came in with a group of doctors. The dean looked at the breakfast and asked, “It’s past nine o’clock, why haven’t you eaten? No appetite?” Song Jianping did not answer.
The dean used a stethoscope to listen to his heart, feel his forehead and so on, and conferred with other doctors, and agreed that he was not seriously injured, just weak and needed nutrition. The director told the police on duty to take the milk to warm up, and said: “Do not worry, as long as you eat, with our treatment, less than a week will recover, your wife was going to come over today to help prison, you look like this can only be pushed back.”
The dean finished speaking and walked out with the other doctors.
“Report cadre, I want to see my wife today!” Song Jianping called out to the dean.
Song Jianping met his wife, and unlike meeting through a glass window, the affinity help was his wife coming inside the prison, talking face to face, and taking much longer than a normal meeting. I had already communicated with his wife about the situation before that, and I don’t know what the two of them actually said during the meeting. But after Song Jianping came back, he stopped his hunger strike.
Song Jianping also told us that the broken tiles were picked up by him on the roadside, presumably by the civilian workers renovating the prison toilets who accidentally fell out of a snake skin bag while dumping the garbage. After that, the entire prison district to carry out a health cleaning, the roadside grass, flower beds and other places not often cleaned, a carpet “cleaning”.
The matter finally passed.
4
According to the doubts on the verdict, I helped Song Jianping write a letter of complaint review. I asked a few colleagues from the prison district to look at the review letter to find faults and make comments. Two months after the review letter was sent out, the court sent someone to arraign Song Jianping.
“The review letter you wrote was received, and our president read it and asked for a new review.”
The court conducted a review of the case, but due to the lack of valid evidence, the complaint was stalled. Song Jianping also did not give up, normal work during the day to work, and insist on writing complaints at night, complaints in triplicate, written and handed over to the police to help him forward. This day lasted for six months, the court still did not move, Song Jianping some can not hold on.
He began to often daze, whether sitting on the prison bed or stool, or even sitting on the floor, as long as a sit down, not out of a minute, even if he is surrounded by other prisoners chatting, he will enter the daze ……
Once, instructor Wang looked for him to talk, he entered the conversation room, very restrained, very depressed, reluctant to sit, squatting on the ground. Instructor Wang repeatedly asked him to sit, he shook his head and refused, and then Instructor Wang helped him up before he sat down on the chair. His whole body kept shivering during the whole conversation, and he was asked if he was cold. He said no, and said he was not shivering.
When he looked at his body with his eyes, his whole body stopped shaking, and once he answered the question or moved his eyes, his body started to shake. After Instructor Wang reported this situation to the prison, the prison immediately arranged for a counselor to carry out crisis intervention for him.
According to the offenders in Song Jianping’s mutual supervision group, Song Jianping always leaned against the wall and often stayed in a corner, no matter walking or looking for a place to sit recently. Moreover, he often talked in his sleep in the middle of the night and shouted, which made other prisoners rest badly.
Once, Song Jianping woke up in the middle of the night and grabbed his thighs, which was stopped by the inmate on duty. The next day in the shower, fellow inmates saw that his outer thigh was swollen with a large, bruising color, which was very frightening.
After testing, the counselor initially determined that Song Jianping was suffering from mild depression, a mental illness that poses a suicide risk.
Considering that he had already committed suicide once before, in order to reduce the pressure of his rehabilitation, the prison district carried out medication for him along with psychotherapy.
After another year and a half, Song Jianping’s wife came to visit him in prison, and I talked to her.
Song Jianping’s wife said, “I found an acquaintance, 20,000 yuan to do a sentence reduction.”
“You do not spend that money, keep the money to do some serious work. Don’t listen to those cattle nonsense, reduce the sentence through the proper channels.”
Her wife cried and said that when he and Song Jianping got married, her parents were reluctant, and then her father heard about Song Jianping and was so angry that he was hospitalized and almost died. The complaint ran for several years, the results are still far away, and now only want Song Jianping out sooner to reduce the sentence.
After looking at Song Jianping’s score assessment, the assessment points he received through labor rehabilitation can already be converted into three commendations, but from his performance after his imprisonment – repeated fights, violation of prison rules and discipline, to the point of sentence reduction is not in line with the rules, the normal situation will have to wait a bit. Thinking about his previous performance, I think this still needs to be clear with him.
I didn’t wait to find him, but Song Jianping took the initiative to find me: “Team Yu, did my wife come to you to talk about sentence reduction?”
“Yes, what’s the problem?”
“I’m not commuting my sentence!”
“Why?” I wondered.
“Don’t you talk about commuting my sentence, just write out this plea of guilty and repentance, and I won’t even go out if you let me go home. I’ll wait here, I set myself three: get a not guilty verdict to go home, honorable home; either the body can not die in prison even; or 7 years squatting full, I go to Beijing to complain. I was originally innocent, accepting a reduced sentence means that I have acquiesced to my guilt.”
5
In 2008, a team from the provincial prison administration came to inspect the prison, and Song Jianping scurried out from a corner and knelt on the ground and shouted sadly: “I want to see the director, I want to see the director!”
The one who led the team that day was the deputy director of the provincial prison administration, he let Song Jianping up and asked him, “What do you have to do, you can tell me!”
“I want to see the director, I’ll only talk to the director!”
“I am the deputy director of the Provincial Prison Administration, you can talk to me.”
Upon hearing this, Song Jianping hastily took out the complaint materials he kept in his clothes, and he told the deputy director about his complaint. The deputy director nodded and handed the materials to the staff accompanying him, asking them to contact the court to confirm the situation and then report the results to him.
After the deputy director left, I called Song Jianping out. The prison leader informed to put him in confinement. A prisoner casually ran to the inspection group, if every prisoner is like this, it will not be chaos. At the same time, along with the prison assessment points were also deducted.
I pointed to the curbside chair: “Sit down for a while.”
He still stood there, did not move.
I patted the chair: “Sit down.”
Song Jianping said uneasily: “You’re in a police uniform, I’m a prisoner, it’s too conspicuous, I’d better squat. Yu team, in fact, I was expecting to be punished before ……”
“I’m relieved that you think so. However, the treatment of you, a bit heavy.”
Song Jianping smiled bitterly.
“I will continue to follow up on the issue of your complaint, but I hope you won’t be resistant to it. The confinement cell is not hell, right?”
Song Jianping nodded his head.
After coming out of the confinement cell, Song Jianping received the news that the Prison Administration had helped him reflect his situation and the court side had reopened the review. He gained confidence, worked harder than before, and made the honor roll.
But since he made the honor roll once, he went back to his old state. He was asked to talk to him and asked why. He said: “I don’t want to be on the honor roll, I don’t want to be praised. Only people who commit crimes want to be praised, and praise means positive rehabilitation.”
“You don’t agree with the word ‘rehabilitation’?”
“Yes, I just don’t agree that it’s the real criminals who need to be rehabilitated. I believe in the law, and I believe the law will give me a fair answer.”
This was the first time he had ever said such a thing to me, and the words stung me deeply.
6
In fact, Song Jianping’s optimism came a little too early. Until his release from prison in 2011, the case had not yet been reopened for retrial. On the day of his release, the people waiting for Song Jianping at the prison gate were his wife and two daughters.
For seven years, Song Jianping’s two daughters, because of their father’s affairs, “it’s not nice to talk about”, only went to junior high school, and then went out to work. When Song Jianping was in prison, he was reluctant to talk to his daughters on the phone because of embarrassment. But when he was alone, the greatest comfort was to read his daughter’s letters.
“Dad, as long as you get your body well, we are not afraid of anything. My sister and I are both grown up now and can already take care of ourselves, so don’t worry ……” I had seen his eldest daughter write this when checking the letters.
His depression had a lot to do with his two daughters as well.
He said that during that time, seeing the delay in the outcome of his complaint, having a home he could not return to, having relatives he could not reunite with, and having daughters he could not enjoy the joy of family, made him desperate. In order to alleviate the pain, he scratched his thighs hard, trying to let the physical pain replace the psychological grief, and only later recovered slowly after medication.
Song was eventually released at the end of his sentence, and he did not have his sentence reduced by a single day during his time in prison.
In the summer of 2012, I received a call from Song Jianping out of the blue in the prison office: “Team Yu, my wife is pregnant again!” He also told me that he had opened a soy milk store in his home county, and business was still good, and warmly invited me to play sometime.
Prison police and released prisoners are difficult to become friends, in general, after the release of prisoners, rarely contact the correctional staff, and correctional staff rarely visit them. Song Jianping’s situation was a bit special, and I wanted to go see how the couple was doing now.
After a few days, I found a time to go to Song Jianping’s soy milk store. When Song Jianping saw me, he was overjoyed and shouted happily, “Ah, Team Yu is here!” His wife was away and went out to buy something. It was just not business hours, so we could sit down and chat comfortably.
In his place, I heard something about what happened after he was released from prison.
After Song Jianping was released from prison, together with his wife, he asked around and found Wang Juan, a young woman from that year, who was already married with children and had a family of her own. Wang Juan told Song Jianping, let him not come to her, the number of times the public prosecutor came over the years, more than she can remember, she just want to live in peace and quiet.
When Song Jianping heard her say this, he said that he would not give up, he would go to Beijing to appeal to the Supreme People’s Court, and this matter would never end. He said he was going to leave, but Wang Juan called him back.
She told the truth of the matter –
When she was 12 years old, Wang Juan’s parents divorced and the court awarded her father custody of her. But because her father’s financial situation was not very good, her loving mother was afraid of her daughter’s hardships, and because she owned a clothing store, her financial situation was quite good, so she brought Wang Juan to her side.
Later, Wang Juan’s mother was introduced to the businessman Zhang Daxin. Zhang Daxin’s economic conditions are better, and he is more generous. After spending some time together, her mother eventually married Zhang Daxin and started a new family. Although Wang Juan is young, she has been taller than children her age since she was a child, and by the time she was 16, she had reached about 1 meter 65.
One night, her mother did not come home because of business matters. The sleeping Wang Juan dazedly felt someone was taking off her pants, and was awakened to find that the person climbing on top of her was her stepfather Zhang Daxin. Zhang Daxin threatened to kill her mother if she dared to tell others.
Because of fear, she did not dare to resist …… After that, Zhang Daxin would enter her room whenever her mother was not there.
She had no way to tell others what happened to her during those years, and she wrote a suicide note, wanting to leave the world quietly alone, because for her, the world was black and without any hope.
Because of the physical and mental victimization, she became more and more reticent, and her academic performance also slipped once, and she dropped out of high school before finishing.
One day, her stepfather Zhang Daxin approached her and asked her to do something for him, and promised that he would never touch her again after the job was done. Zhang Daxin told her that because he was short of funds for his business, he borrowed from his “friends” in the community as a loan shark, and finally lost his business, and could not repay the money he borrowed. The debtor said to Zhang Daxin that he heard Wang Juan was working in the store of Mr. and Mrs. Li Hongji, and as long as he helped him to do one thing, the money could be written off. Wang Juan was reluctant, but agreed to do so because she wanted to get rid of Zhang Daxin.
On that day, Li Hongji called about Song Jianping to talk business in the store, and Wang Juan had a chance encounter with Song Jianping on the third floor, all arranged by the debtor. And after three days and then report the case, is deliberately to cause some evidence of the lack of.
“That person is a KTV owner.” Finally, Wang Juan told Song Jianping that she met with the debtor once, and it was Zhang Daxin who took her there, and the debtor personally explained what she needed to do. Zhang Daxin is very polite to the debtor, a mouthful of “Mr. Hu” is very cordial.
Song Jianping immediately understood, so many years, they have offended the KTV boss only one, is that he stabbed a friend years ago to help him out. That person is also surnamed Hu, and then a detailed examination of the looks, all right. It turns out that this is the KTV owner in order to retaliate against him, specially designed for him to set up a trap.
He was reluctant, and begged Wang Juan to help her clarify everything and give himself justice. But Wang Juan said that the reason she said this was because she felt sorry for Song Jianping from her conscience, and she had spent several years in guilt and pain. But if she had to testify, she couldn’t do it, because then her family would be ruined.
Song Jianping finally decided not to complain and live a good life. He said that if he hadn’t stabbed someone else back then, there wouldn’t have been all those things that happened later.
With the help of relatives, he began to send food to hotels and restaurants, the income is okay, but he was a little reluctant. Just as their street reconstruction of the food street, he discussed with his wife, decided to open a store. He applied for a storefront in the street to sell soy milk, and applied for a business license at the Bureau of Industry and Commerce.
He woke up at 3:00 every morning, grinding his own soy milk, selling 2 buckets in front of the store, and the other 2 buckets were taken away by others. Store door also rented to others to sell breakfast, here 300, there 500, can earn some rent back.
Song Jianping said, his daily net income of more than 200 yuan, a month’s income of six or seven thousand yuan, business is okay. “I have a desire to do well in the future, just like Yonghe soymilk, a chain store.”
After a while, his wife came back and was very happy to see me, handily frying a few dishes, while Song Jianping and I continued to chat while drinking beer.
I couldn’t help but sigh deeply when I saw how happy and happy they were as a couple.
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