
 
 
 
 Photo taken on Dec. 2, 2016 shows the scene of the trial. A man convicted for rape and murder in China had his conviction overturned by China's top court on Friday, 21 years after he was executed. The second circuit court under the Supreme People's Court revoked the verdict, ruling that the previous conviction was based on insufficient evidence and unclear facts. Nie Shubin was convicted in 1995 of raping and murdering a woman on the outskirts of Hebei provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, and executed the same year at the age of 21. (Xinhua) ||||| Under President Xi Jinping, the government has been making efforts to overhaul the criminal justice system, with the overturning of wrongful convictions a key part of that effort. Prosecutors in China almost always secure a conviction, and confessions are often made under duress. 
 
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 “To some extent, this shows the determination of the central leadership to genuinely address some unjust cases,” William Nee, a researcher for Amnesty International in Hong Kong, said Friday of Mr. Nie’s exoneration. “But the Chinese government also wants to ensure that it is seen by the public as redressing these emblematic cases of injustice, and thereby restore greater legitimacy for its troubled criminal justice system.” 
 
 Intentionally or not, that message was conveyed to the public by Nie Xuesheng, Mr. Nie’s father. A video by Pear Video, a news service, showed him wailing when he heard of his son’s exoneration on Friday. He vowed to visit his son’s grave the next day. 
 
 But he also added a political statement: “Thank you, President Xi Jinping,” Mr. Nie said. “Your ruling the country by law has brought me huge benefits. I give you a thumbs up.” 
 
 The Hebei High Court, which had upheld Mr. Nie’s murder conviction, expressed “sincere apologies” to his parents Friday on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. The court promised to improve and said it would begin the process of awarding compensation to the parents. 
 
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 Legal experts say that despite some improvements in China’s criminal justice system, the underlying problem is that the system is not independent but controlled by the Communist Party. 
 
 Xu Xin, a lawyer and scholar in Beijing who studies capital punishment, said that meant that rulings were often made for political reasons. That was true in Mr. Nie’s case, he said. Part of the reason for the 11-year delay between Mr. Wang’s confession and Mr. Nie’s exoneration was resistance from the local police and prosecutors who handled the original case, Mr. Xu said. 
 
 “Those who have caused unjust cases do not want to redress them,” said Mr. Xu, who for years posted frequent messages on social media asking for Mr. Nie’s case to be reopened. “There still isn’t an independent judicial system. If we don’t have such a system, it is still difficult to avoid such cases.” 
 
 In addition, prosecutors wield enormous influence over the courts. Nationally, the conviction rate was more than 99.9 percent last year, drawing international condemnation. 
 
 Wrongful convictions are made more likely by periodic anti-crime drives, or “strike hard” campaigns. Mr. Nie was convicted and executed in the midst of one such campaign. Another is underway now in the far western region of Xinjiang, where thousands have been arrested in an attempt to tamp down unrest among Uighurs, an ethnic minority that calls the region home. 
 
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 Another exoneration of a man who had been executed years before came in 2014, in Inner Mongolia, a region of northern China. That man, an 18-year-old ethnic Mongolian named Huugjilt, had been put to death for murder in 1996; as in Mr. Nie’s case, another person later confessed to the crime. 
 
 Even as the Chinese authorities work to assure people that the courts are becoming more fair, the means for people to publicize injustices and bring them to court are being hobbled by a nationwide crackdown on lawyers who take up the causes of the powerless. Since July 2015, hundreds of lawyers and rights activists have been swept up in a nationwide dragnet, as Mr. Xi seeks to stamp out a perceived threat to Communist Party rule. The latest known detentions happened just days ago. 
 
 “With the crackdown on lawyers and human rights defenders, and new regulations restricting the freedom of expression for lawyers, the government is stifling the type of advocacy that brought about this positive outcome in the Nie Shubin case,” Mr. Nee of Amnesty International said. ||||| Beijing (CNN) More than two decades after her son was executed for rape and murder, Zhang Huanzhi has finally proven his innocence. 
 
 China's top court overturned Nie Shubin's conviction Friday, in a landmark case that exposed deep flaws in China's criminal justice system. 
 
 "I wanted to tell my son: you're a good person, you're innocent," Zhang told CNN. 
 
 Amid emotional scenes in the courtroom, judges ruled that Nie's original trial didn't "obtain enough objective evidence," saying there were serious doubts about the time of death, murder weapon and cause of death. 
 
 "The moment the justice announced the verdict, Zhang burst into tears," lawyer Li Shuting said. "Not only her, other people in the courtroom felt emotional too. I almost stood up and applauded but I didn't, I had to comfort Zhang as she was crying so hard." 
 
 Innocent 
 
 Another man, Wang Shujin, confessed to the crime that Nie was executed for in 2005 -- 10 years after Nie was executed. 
 
 "In this case, the Supreme People's Court changed the original sentence and ruled Nie Shubin is innocent," according to state-run news agency Xinhua. 
 
 "As the evidence is not accurate or adequate and nor can it exclude the possibilities of other suspects, it is recommended that the Supreme People's Court retry the case." 
 
 "After his death, his mother repeatedly dreamed of him knocking at the window and muttering 'Mom, I'm back'," Li said. 
 
 Nie would have been 42 this year. Following his execution his father Nie Xuesheng tried to commit suicide, but survived. 
 
 "My son can finally rest in peace," the older Nie told the Beijing Times Friday. 
 
 Mother fights for her son 
 
 Photos: One woman's battle for justice One woman's quest for justice – Zhang hopes the government would do whatever it takes to protect other families from the kind of anguish she has suffered. Hide Caption 1 of 4 Photos: One woman's battle for justice Nie Shubin was executed in 1995 for raping and killing a woman. A decade later, another man confessed to the same crimes. Hide Caption 2 of 4 Photos: One woman's battle for justice Zhang's husband (left), crushed by their son's execution, tried to commit suicide and later became half-paralyzed. Hide Caption 3 of 4 Photos: One woman's battle for justice Zhang goes to court whenever she catches a break between tending the cornfield and feeding her livestock. Hide Caption 4 of 4 
 
 In July, Zhang told CNN she was very excited about the review. 
 
 "I'll visit his grave soon to tell him that mom's efforts all these years weren't in vain -- and justice will prevail in your case," she said. 
 
 The court said that Nie's family could ask for compensation from the government. 
 
 CNN first met Zhang in her small village in 2011, when the farmer from Hebei Province was still fighting in earnest to clear her son's name, making countless journeys to the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang -- some 320 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of Beijing. 
 
 Her refusal to stay quiet appears to have made a difference in this case. 
 
 Authorities tried Nie behind closed doors and barred the parents from the courtroom, but Nie told a lawyer hired by his family that he was beaten into a confession on his sixth day in jail. 
 
 Seven months after he was first detained, the government executed Nie -- without notifying his parents. 
 
 After the initial shock, Zhang had to endure more agony to locate her son's remains and deal with a failed suicide attempt and subsequent half-paralysis of her husband, who was devastated by Nie's execution. 
 
 Flawed system 
 
 For years, it seemed no one would listen, but Zhang later found an unlikely ally in the People's Daily -- the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party. It ran a scathing commentary in September 2011 that asked: "In a case where someone was clearly wronged, why has it been so difficult to make it right?" 
 
 "Rehabilitation means little to the dead, but it means a lot to his surviving family and all other citizens," the paper said. "We can no longer afford to let Nie's case drag on." 
 
 Many have viewed Zhang's plight -- and the case involving her only son -- as an egregious example of widespread police torture, deficient due process and lax review of death sentences. 
 
 China is the world's most prolific executioner, killing thousands of people last year, according to rights group Amnesty International. ||||| BEIJING (AP) — China's supreme court ruled Friday that a young man executed 21 years ago for rape and murder had been innocent, in a case that has drawn attention to problems in the legal system as well as the frequent application of the death penalty. 
 
 Nie Shubin was 20 at the time of his 1995 execution for crimes he was accused of committing in the northern city of Shijiazhuang in August of 1994. Another man, Wang Shujin, confessed to the crimes in 2005 while in police custody, although a legal review of the case did not get underway until 2014. 
 
 In its ruling, the court cited numerous examples of negligence and procedural errors by police and prosecutors, including the fact that Nie was singled out as a suspect "without a shred of evidence." It also said it couldn't rule out that Nie's testimony was coerced by torture or other means, a frequent accusation against the legal system that relies heavily on confessions to gain convictions. 
 
 China ordered speeded-up trials and executions during anti-crime campaigns in the 1990s, leading to frequent cutting of corners by legal authorities. Two years ago, another court ruled that 18-year-old Huugjilt, an ethnic Mongolian who was executed in 1996 for rape and murder, also was innocent after another man confessed to the crime. The court awarded Huugjilt's parents compensation. 
 
 However, under reforms in recent years, all death penalties are now automatically reviewed by the supreme court and the justices say executions are carried out only for the most heinous crimes. The exact number of people put to death is a state secret, but rights groups say China remains the world's top executioner. 
 
 Chinese legal scholar Xu Xin, a prominent advocate of legal reforms to reduce wrongful convictions, said Nie's case has emerged as highly representative of the country's problems with miscarriages of justice. 
 
 "In China's legal and social spheres, this case has garnered the greatest concern and has the most influence. Everyone's views on this case have basically been the same — that there was grave injustice," Xu said. 
 
 But the fact that it took this long for him to be exonerated shows the challenges ordinary people face in gaining legal redress in China, he said. "A vindication like this implies that compensation would have to be made, and someone could potentially be held responsible for the mistake, so that makes authorities unwilling to make an active push to correct the injustice," he said. 
 
 He credited the Chinese media, concerned defense lawyers and others who drew attention to the case for the court's overturning of the verdict, but said that the problem at the heart of the issue remained China's lack of an independent judiciary. 
 
 "The police, prosecutors and the court mainly cooperate with each other, not as checks against each other, defense lawyers aren't able to play their roles fully, while officials can easily interfere in cases. These all contribute to wrongful convictions," Xu said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Gillian Wong also contributed to this report.
– In August 1994, a Chinese man was named a suspect in the rape and murder of Kang Juhua, whose body was found in the northern Hebei province. He was allegedly beaten into a confession, subjected to a trial his parents couldn't attend, and executed by gunshot without their knowledge seven months later. Now, 21 years after that, China's supreme court has declared Nie Shubin, just 20 years old at the time of his death, innocent. CNN calls it "a landmark case that exposed deep flaws in China's criminal justice system," where 99.93% of cases ended with a conviction in 2013. In their ruling, the judges noted that Nie was made a suspect "without a shred of evidence" and that the time and cause of death and murder weapon couldn't be verified, reports the AP. And, then, there was the other confession. A man named Wang Shujin admitted to the crimes in 2005; it took nine years for a legal review of the case to commence—Beijing legal expert Xu Xin tells the New York Times the police and prosecutors who worked on the case drove the hold-up—and the court in June of this year decided the case should be retried. On Friday, Xinhua reports the Supreme People's Court, among other things, ruled the "truth and legitimacy of Nie's confession" were in doubt. Nie's mother, burdened by both the loss of her son and her husband's attempted suicide in the wake of Nie's death, broke down sobbing at the news. She tells CNN, "I wanted to tell my son: you're a good person, you're innocent." Xinhua reports Wang was sentenced to death for unrelated rape and murder cases. (Something similar happened almost exactly two years ago.)