21 February 2024 :
A man convicted of robbing a woman, murdering her, and desecrating her body has been executed, Beijing Youth Daily reported on February 19, 2024.
The man, surnamed Zhang, was sentenced to death on charges of robbery, intentional homicide and corpse desecration as ruled by the Hubei Higher People's Court in 2022.
The Supreme Court approved his death penalty after a review.
Zhang, 41, carried a dagger to Nanshan Park in Zhushan County, Hubei Province, with the intention to commit a robbery on November 1, 2021.
After seeing that the victim, a 21-year-old woman surnamed Zhu, was alone, he followed her and stole her iPhone.
He then forced Zhu at knife-point to some bushes. When she resisted and cried out for help, Zhang, in order to silence her, repeatedly stabbed her with the dagger, resulting in her death.
Zhang sold the iPhone and returned to the scene the following day to carry out acts of desecration on the corpse, which was later placed in a plastic bag with the knife and discarded in the river.
Zhu's body was found by local police on November 5. Three days later, Zhang was apprehended.According to China Judgements Online, Zhang had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998 for the crimes of robbery, rape and theft. However, he was released in 2016 after commutation of his sentence.
