By The newspaper
01 Feb 2024, 21:10 PM EST
In a case that has shocked the entire country, China carried out the execution of a couple found guilty of a heinous act against two innocent lives.
The man, Zhang Bo, and his girlfriend, Ye Chengchen, were convicted of murdering Zhang’s children from a previous marriage in a disturbing attempt to remove “obstacles” to their new relationship, according to a CNN report.
The tragedy unfolded in the city of Chongqing, where the couple orchestrated the deaths of a two-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy by throwing them out of a window from the 15th floor of a high-rise apartment.
China’s Supreme People’s Court described the crime as “a serious challenge to legal and moral foundations,” finding the couple’s motives “extremely despicable” and their methods “particularly cruel.”
The Supreme People’s Court said the couple’s crime “seriously challenged the legal and moral outcome,” calling their criminal motive “extremely despicable” and “particularly cruel,” reported Xinhua, the state news agency in China.
According to CNN, the incident not only sparked outrage across the country, but also reignited debates about the morality and effectiveness of the death penalty in China.
The debate over the death penalty in China
News of the execution has dominated Chinese social media, with many expressing satisfaction with the court’s decision. A study published in 2020 indicated that 68% of Chinese citizens support the death penalty.
However, John Zhuang Liu, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, warns that online opinions may not fully represent the general public’s stance on capital punishment. Despite the lack of transparent data on the number of executions, according to Amnesty International, China is considered the world’s leading executioner.
The execution method, lethal injection, has also sparked debate among Chinese netizens, with some suggesting harsher methods for heinous crimes.
This discussion reflects global controversies over execution methods, such as the recent use of nitrogen gas in Alabama, which experts fear could cause excessive pain or torture.
In China, the death penalty is a legal practice and is applied to a wide range of crimes, considered by the government to be an effective means of deterring serious crime.
The country is known for executing more people annually than the rest of the world combined, although the exact numbers are a state secret and not publicly disclosed.
Crimes punishable by death include, but are not limited to, homicide, corruption, drug trafficking, and in some cases, serious economic crimes.
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