Overview of the case
The poisoning incident occurred on June 3, 2002, in Fengjie County, Chongqing City. The four people who were poisoned were He, a local resident of Fengjie, and two children. On June 3, 2002, He went to his new house and was busy decorating it as usual, while his wife went to the street to buy vegetables and cook. At lunch time, He's wife cooked meat soup and white rice, so she went to the new house to invite He back for dinner. When the wife left home, her son had just come home from school and saw a large pot of meat on the table, so he stole some. After a while, He Dengjie's little daughter also came home from kindergarten. A family of four arrived and were ready to start lunch. As a result, an accident happened.
He Dengjie's son was the first to be poisoned, probably because he ate some meat slices first. At this time, he screamed that his stomach hurt and rolled on the ground. The He couple thought their child had heatstroke, so they took him to the village doctor for treatment. The doctor gave the child medicine. After taking the medicine, the child vomited and his condition improved. The child is then taken home to rest. Back home, He and Dengjie, his wife and their little daughter started to eat. Soon, the younger daughter also cried and said she had a stomachache and fell to the ground rolling. The couple thought their little daughter was suffering from heatstroke, so they got up to help her. Unexpectedly, both of them fell to the ground, foaming at the mouth.
Neighbors heard the news and came to the rescue. Everyone saw the symptoms of He and his wife and concluded that they died of poisoning. So they called the police and sent He's family of four to the health center for emergency treatment. In the end, the two children saved their lives, but the Hes failed to save them. The villagers did not want He and Dengjie to die inexplicably. They insisted on burying them after solving the case. It was summer. In order to preserve the remains of Mr. and Mrs. He, the villagers first rented ice coffins and then soaked them in liquor to extend the storage time of the remains. It was soaked for more than five months before being buried.
The police extracted shuqiang from the food at the crime scene, proving that four members of the He family were poisoned by shuqiang. During the subsequent investigation, the police discovered that local villager Li Ting (pseudonym) was suspected of committing a major crime. Li Ting later confessed to her crime. Li Ting said she suspected her husband was having an affair with He's wife, so she poisoned him out of spite and put poisonous rat poison in the pot of meat soup. The local police transferred Li Ting to the prosecutor for review on suspicion of intentional homicide, but Li Ting was not sentenced and was found not guilty.
Legal basis for the acquittal of criminal suspect Li Ting.
According to a local police officer with knowledge of the case in Fengjie, the local police took the case very seriously in those years and dispatched dozens of people to set up a task force to handle the case, but in the end they were unable to prosecute due to evidence factors. So how to understand this case from the perspective of Chinese law? Insufficient evidence? Then what.
According to the provisions of our country’s Criminal Procedure Law, evidence and investigation and research must be valued in any case, and confessions cannot be taken lightly. If there is only the suspect's confession and no other evidence, it is impossible to find the suspect guilty and sentence him. In this case, except for the confession of the criminal suspect Li Ting, no other evidence was found to prove that Li Ting committed the crime. Therefore, Li Ting cannot be convicted and sentenced in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law. This is also the reason why Li Ting was found not guilty.