Innocent after 17 years in jail over wife's death

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A man in east China has been declared innocent after serving 17 years of a life sentence for the killing of his wife.

The Anhui Provincial Higher People's Court set Yu Yingsheng free on Tuesday after a retrial. The court ruled that in the previous trial, facts about the alleged homicide were unclear and the evidence inadequate.

After years behind bars, Yu is in a state of poor health and has left home to recuperate in private, a local police source told Xinhua on Wednesday. Neither Yu or his relatives were available for comment.

Yu's wife, Han, was killed at their home on Dec. 2, 1996. Bengbu Municipal Intermediate People's Court sentenced Yu to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of homicide. The verdict was upheld by a higher provincial court on appeal.

Both Yu and his father have continued to lodge appeals over the verdict ever since.

On May 31, 2013, the provincial high court reviewed the case and ordered a retrial.

After his release, Yu was told by the court that he had the right to apply for state compensation and asked police to pursue the real killer.

On Tuesday, China announced the country's first guidelines to prevent miscarriages of justice, following multiple judicial scandals.

Issued by the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the guidelines reiterate several legal principles, including those requiring that guilt must be established beyond doubt and that judges, procurators and police officers will bear a "life-long responsibility" for their roles in wrongful judgments.

In one controversial case, Nie Shubin was executed in 1995 in northern Hebei Province at the age of 21, for the 1994 rape and murder of a woman in the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang. Wang Shujin confessed to having raped and murdered the woman in Shijiazhuang after he was apprehended by police in 2005 on three separate rape and murder charges.

A retrial of Wang was held in June and July by Hebei Provincial Higher People's Court. The verdict has not yet been announced.

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