HEFEI, May 15 -- A man was sentenced to death for homicide in east China's Anhui province Friday afternoon, 17 years after the victim's husband was wrongly imprisoned for her murder.

Wu Qinyuan, an ex-police officer, was found guilty by Wuhu Intermediate People's Court for the rape and murder of a woman named Han on Dec. 2, 1996.

According to the court, Wu raped Han after getting into her apartment. Finding that the victim had suffocated, he cut her neck with a knife and faked a robbery.

Han's husband Yu Yingsheng, then an official in the local government, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Yu and his father have continued to lodge appeals ever since.

On May 31, 2013, the provincial higher court reviewed the case and ordered a retrial. Yu was set free on August 13, 2013 by Anhui Higher People's Court, which ruled that the facts were unclear and the evidence inadequate in the previous trial.

After examination of the evidence, including DNA from a semen sample, Wu was apprehended on Nov. 27, 2013.

The Intermediate People's Court of Wuhu also ruled that Wu should pay Yu 52,000 yuan (about 8,300 U.S. dollars) as compensation.

Last December, another man was declared innocent, by Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Higher People's Court, 18 years after he was executed for the rape and murder of a woman in June 1996.