The focus of the Mo family's life has entirely shifted to "rescue." Everyone contributed in their own way, either financially or with effort, splitting tasks to find lawyers, pull strings, and gather evidence. Mo Weiliang, Mo Weiqi's third younger brother, had been doing small businesses after being laid off. For his brother, he abandoned his business and frequently traveled between Hunan and Yunnan, each trip lasting from a week to half a month. He took full responsibility for contacting lawyers and visiting relevant departments.
In April 2008, the honest Mo Weiqi and his companion Xie Kaiqi helped deliver jade to Yunnan and were caught at airport security for carrying drugs. Despite their repeated claims of ignorance, they were sentenced to death for drug trafficking. Later, after many legal professionals' efforts, this case attracted nationwide attention. After multiple trials, on July 17, 2009, they were finally judged innocent. Four months later, they each received state compensation. From a death sentence to state compensation, the reversal of this wrongful case undoubtedly became a benchmark case for "doubtful crimes as none" in China's legal history.
To rescue him, the whole family mobilized. On July 17, Mo Weiqi specially ordered a dish of pepper-fried pork in Hunanese style as breakfast. Just as he was about to start eating, the staff from the detention center suddenly appeared in front of him. "Mo Weiqi, please come out!" Dragging his heavy leg irons, Mo Weiqi slowly got up and went out. He remembered that just two days ago, a drug trafficker had been executed here. "Could it be my turn to go to the execution ground? Let me eat first if I'm going to die!" Mo Weiqi muttered in his heart.
On the 27th day, Wu Xiaoyu received a phone call from a lawyer in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province: "Mo Weiqi is suspected of carrying drugs and has been arrested..." Her first reaction was to ask "Xiong General" what happened, "Isn't he just transporting jade?" But "Xiong General" and his family had already disappeared without a trace. "Clearly, 'Xiong General' deceived our old Mo."
"I really thought he was asking me to work, and I had no guard against it," Mo Weiqi said. One day in April 2008, "Xiong General", who lived near his house and was dressed in a suit, came to the mahjong parlor and proposed hiring him to transport jade samples to Yunnan. Not only would all transportation and accommodation costs be covered, but if he returned within ten days, he would receive a 1000 yuan reward, and for every extra day, he would get an additional 100 yuan. Hearing this, Mo Weiqi was delighted and immediately agreed. Not long after, Mo Weiqi and his fellow villager Xie Kaiqi followed "Xiong General" by train to Yunnan. "If I had known it was transporting drugs, I would never have let my husband go," Wu Xiaoyu still regrets today.
From being sentenced to death in the first trial and retrial, to being released innocent in the final trial, Mo Weiqi's fate rose and fell dramatically like a roller coaster. Now, the car has finally reached its destination, but this "delayed justice" has sparked much discussion among the public and scholars.
"The Jade Porter's Life-and-Death Crisis"
"I firmly believe my husband didn't deal drugs; otherwise, we wouldn't have tried so hard to save him." The news of her husband being arrested for drug trafficking made Wu Xiaoyu anxious, unable to eat or sleep, and she gradually lost weight. Although she appeared strong, the cold remarks from neighbors were unbearable, and she began to avoid going out. Rescuing her husband required money, so Wu Xiaoyu had to sell her house, which she had bought less than two years ago, at a low price. Then she went to Changsha to work as a nanny and sent her saved salary to her husband; her daughter in university also gave her part-time income to her mother while encouraging her to stay strong, herself often crying secretly alone.
Finally, the wrongfully accused case turned around. On August 10, 2009, Mo and Xie formally submitted applications for state compensation to the Higher People's Court of Yunnan Province. Three months later, they finally waited for the delayed justice. On November 10, the Intermediate People's Court of Dehong Prefecture and the People's Procuratorate of Dehong Prefecture issued a "Joint Compensation Decision", stating that Mo and Xie were innocent and their personal freedom was violated, thus legally entitled to compensation. According to the law, both were awarded state compensation of 50,507.49 yuan and 48,491.67 yuan respectively.
Soon, Mo Weiqi was brought to two plainclothes staff members. "You are being released without guilt." "What?" Mo Weiqi couldn't believe his ears and anxiously asked again. "You are being released without guilt." The definite answer lifted the big rock that had been pressing on Mo Weiqi's heart for 15 months.
What caused a dramatic change in the entire case was a 6000-word post published on the Rednet Forum on October 3, 2008 - "Suggest Saving Wrongfully Convicted Death Row Inmates." The poster was Zhu Peili, a standing committee member of the Xiangtan Municipal People's Congress and the executive vice president of the Xiangtan Legal Society.
Thus, the family continued to inquire and search everywhere, believing that as long as they could catch "Xiong General," they could prove Mo Weiqi's innocence. Soon, they finally discovered some information about "Xiong General." On September 26, 2008, during a cleaning operation by the Xiangtan police, "Xiong General" Xiong Zhengjiang was arrested and confessed that Mo Weiqi did not know that the luggage contained hidden drugs at the time. The Xiangtan police immediately contacted the Dehong police and escorted Xiong Zhengjiang to Yunnan.
Mo Weiqi is from Xiangtan, Hunan Province, over 50 years old, and has never left the province. In 2004, after the first automobile repair company in Xiangtan was restructured, he and his wife Wu Xiaoyu were both laid off and barely managed to live on government low-income assistance, running a mahjong parlor and doing odd jobs. A year ago, he still had black hair and was energetic, but now he has gray hair, and his eyes seem somewhat vacant. After returning home, his health condition has not been good, "my eyesight is bad, my waist hurts, and my throat is not good..." When meeting with the reporter, he had just finished intravenous therapy at a hospital in Xiangtan and returned home. Since the old house had been sold cheaply, he and his wife could only squeeze into a two-bedroom apartment of about 70 square meters at his younger brother's place, laying down mats in the living room as a bed.
How did a "death row inmate" eventually become a compensated person, and what unknown experiences did he undergo? Recently, Mo Weiqi told the reporter the story behind it.
Associate Professor Chen Lan of Wuhan University Law School said, "There are many aspects worth reflecting on in this case. The reason for twice sentencing to death is because the evidence threshold was not properly controlled. Without sufficient evidence, one cannot determine that Mo Weiqi knew subjectively that he was selling drugs. Our judicial organs have long emphasized punishing crime but neglected protecting human rights." According to what I learned, retaining the death penalty, strictly controlling and limiting the death penalty, minimizing executions, and exercising caution in sentencing to death is the basic principle of our country's criminal trial. On January 1, 2007, the Supreme People's Court reclaimed the previously delegated power to review death sentences, aiming to be extremely cautious in death penalty judgments.
Soon, national people's congress deputies Xie Zilong, standing committee member of the Yunnan Provincial People's Congress, Ruan Hongxian, and lawyers Guo Liang and Chen Zigeng from Hunan Liren Law Firm began advocating and striving for this case, hoping to save the "wrongfully convicted death row inmates." This case quickly drew widespread attention.
On September 17, 2008, the Intermediate People's Court of Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan sentenced Mo Weiqi to death. However, Mo Weiqi insisted that he did not know that the luggage contained hidden drugs, and eight days later, he appealed to the Higher People's Court of Yunnan Province.
When Mo Weiqi described his life behind bars to the reporter, he said that due to wearing handcuffs, his waist and legs were damaged to varying degrees, causing severe pain. After learning the results of the retrial, he felt extremely desperate and even once considered suicide.
On July 14, 2009, the Higher People's Court of Yunnan Province called the Mo family: "Please send a family member to the Intermediate People's Court of Dehong Prefecture." At that time, Mo Weiliang, who was handling matters in Guangzhou, received a call from his family and hurriedly rushed to Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province. "Why such urgent notice? Could there be another change?" Mo Weiliang pondered silently.
This post first revealed the various suspicious points of this case: "Mo Weiqi was sentenced to death for the crime of transporting drugs, violating the 'presumption of innocence' principle of 'doubtful crimes as none,' possibly leading to the wrongful killing of an innocent person; it violated the 'evidence-based conviction' principle of not easily trusting confessions." In his view, there was no direct evidence in this case indicating that Mo Weiqi 'knew' or 'should have known' about the hidden drugs in the compartment. There was no trace analysis conducted on the drugs during the investigation process, and no fingerprints of Mo Weiqi were found. As for Mo Weiqi himself, he not only did not make a guilty confession but repeatedly stated that he was unaware of the drugs.
At 9:00 AM on the morning of the 23rd, "Brother Hua" handed Mo Weiqi a black suitcase containing jade samples at the hotel and showed him the jade on the spot. Immediately afterward, Mo Weiqi prepared to board the 10:00 PM flight to Kunming with the tickets booked by "Brother Hua," but was stopped at the airport security checkpoint when 1027 grams of white powder was found in the suitcase's hidden compartment.
Mistaking Release for Execution
Experts Rushing Around Everywhere
For Mo Weiqi, these 15 months, which may seem fleeting to ordinary people, became an unforgettable 451-day period where he narrowly escaped death.
"Delayed Justice" Sparks Debate
On the evening of April 16, the three arrived in Ruili, Yunnan, where a man named "Brother Hua" greeted them. Over the next four days, "Brother Hua" used Mo and Xie's IDs to register at several different hotels. During the day, Mo Weiqi and Xie Kaiqi either wandered around Ruili's streets or stayed in the hotel watching TV until "Brother Hua" invited them to dinner with "Xiong General."
Based on this, Zhu Peili inferred that it might lead to the wrongful killing of an innocent person and provided the Mo family with a rescue plan: urgently report the situation to the local public security authorities and provide clues to assist in capturing Xiong Zhengjiang and "Brother Hua"; reflect the situation to national or Yunnan provincial representatives to seek supervision for correcting the error. Four days later, "Xiong General" was captured.
As expected. The families of the Mo and Xie households came together to the Intermediate People's Court of Dehong Prefecture, where judges from the Higher People's Court of Yunnan announced that after deliberation by the Judicial Committee, Xiong Zhengjiang was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve; Mo Weiqi and Xie Kaiqi were acquitted. At this point, Mo Weiqi, who had spent nearly 450 days in jail, did not yet know this good news.
"The bag and jade were given to me by the boss." Mo Weiqi defended himself with a hoarse voice, but no one cared. Having never seen what drugs looked like in his life, he consoled himself: perhaps it was just powdered milk. Anxiously awaiting, Mo Weiqi hoped that the test results would clear his name. However, a week later, the test results showed that the white powder was indeed heroin. According to relevant national regulations, trafficking such a quantity of drugs would undoubtedly result in the death penalty.
Another controversy in this case lies in the amount of state compensation. The State Compensation Law has been implemented for nearly 15 years, and only one-third of the cases applied for have received compensation. Article 26 of the law stipulates: if citizens' personal freedoms are violated, daily compensation shall be calculated according to the average daily wage of workers in the previous year of the country. "This is equivalent to getting paid for sitting in jail for a day. Academia, the public, and official circles all think this standard is too low and needs adjustment," Professor He Bing of China University of Political Science and Law told reporters. "Different regions and industries inevitably show differences in average wages, so the losses caused by imprisonment cannot be generalized. Moreover, the State Compensation Law only compensates for material losses but ignores the mental damage suffered by innocent citizens due to non-existent criminal facts. The draft amendment to the State Compensation Law submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for the third review at the end of October 2009 included 'mental compensation,' but the third review did not pass." This means that the tug-of-war over how to adjust the compensation standards and content will continue.
In early February 2009, the Higher People's Court of Yunnan Province revoked the original death sentence in the second trial and remanded the case for retrial; on the 15th, Mo Weiqi's defense lawyer Guo Liang, his younger brother Mo Weiliang, and Zhu Peili rushed to Yunnan; on the 18th, Mo Weiqi, Xie Kaiqi, and Xiong Zhengjiang were tried jointly. Once again, the prosecution made a guilty accusation against Mo and Xie. Although their defense lawyers continuously argued for their innocence, they were sentenced to death again for drug trafficking. Dissatisfied with the judgment, Mo and Xie filed another appeal.
A special correspondent of "Global People" magazine Gu Yue
Jade "Transformed" into Heroin
The death sentence verdict once passed on Mo Weiqi.
In 2008, Xiong Zhengjiang was escorted back to Yunnan.
Mo Weiqi hugged his family and cried bitterly.
At a detention center in a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan, Mo Weiqi was detained. He shared a small room of less than 30 square meters with more than ten cellmates. The corner toilet emitted a foul smell, and the low and damp "bunk bed" made sleeping impossible. This kind of life drove Mo Weiqi almost to despair. His only hope was that his family far away in Hunan could assist local authorities in uncovering the truth and save him. However, the only clue he could provide to the Yunnan police was "Xiong General," a person of unclear identity.
Caught with drugs while delivering jade, sentenced to death twice, and finally released