Chen Guoqing, Yang Shiliang, and He Guoqiang are the murderers.
The Chen Guoqing case that occurred in Hebei 27 years ago has been the focus of public opinion for several years and was once hailed by the legal community as "one of the most famous criminal cases in China."
The cause of the incident was the murder of two taxi drivers in Chengde, Hebei Province in 1994.
On July 30 and August 16, 1994, two taxi drivers were killed in Chengde Dashi Temple. Two vicious cases of robbery and murder that occurred half a month apart and almost in the same place caused an uproar in Chengde, Hebei Province in the 1990s. Later, after investigation by the Chengde City Police, the suspects were identified as Chen Guoqing, He Guoqiang, Yang Shiliang, and Zhu Yanqiang, villagers of Zhuangtouying Village, Dashimiao Township.
After the incident, from November 3 to 18, 1994, coercive measures were taken against Chen Guoqing, He Guoqiang, and Yang Shiliang. By February 24, 1996, Zhu Yanqiang was also captured by the police at home.
Since then, the case has gone through a 10-year "marathon" trial. From 1994 to the final trial in 2004, the Chengde Intermediate People's Court sentenced four people to death for "robbery" three times. However, the Hebei High Court rejected the death sentences for the four people three times due to "insufficient evidence" and other reasons.
For the fourth time, the Hebei High Court directly changed the verdict of the case and made a "leave room for" judgment. Finally, on March 26, 2004, the Hebei High Court sentenced Chen Guoqing, Yang Shiliang, and He Guoqiang to suspended death, and Zhu Yanqiang to life imprisonment.
Summary:
The four defendants have been serving time in prison since then. But even in prison, the four continued to insist on their claims and always maintained their innocence.
With more than 20 years of appeal, this case broke the media record of "the longest appeal period for prisoners in prison" in recent years. The media also reported the case under the title "Four executions, four times of execution". This case has even entered university classes as a typical "mysterious case".
On March 3, 2021, He Guoqiang, one of the defendants in the case, was released after seven sentence reductions.