MCLC: domestic violence case

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Jacqueline and Martin Winter <dujuan99 at gmail.com>
Subject: domestic violence case
***********************************************************

Source: Human Rights Watch (1/30/13):
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/30/china-commute-death-sentence-domestic-vi
olence-case-0

China: Commute Death Sentence in Domestic Violence Case

(New York) – The Chinese government should immediately commute the death
sentence against Li Yan, a woman convicted of killing her husband
following months of violent abuse. According to Chinese criminal
procedure, Li could be executed in the coming days, following approval by
China <http://www.hrw.org/asia/china>’s Supreme People’s Court.

Human Rights Watch urged the Chinese authorities to follow the practice in
other countries to take into account previous acts of violence against
survivors of domestic violence as a defense or as a mitigating factor in
sentencing. The lack of a comprehensive law against domestic violence to
prevent, investigate, and provide service to survivors compounds abuses,
Human Rights Watch said.

“It is cruel and perverse for the government to impose the death penalty
on Li Yan when it took no action to investigate her husband’s abuse or to
protect her from it,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human
Rights Watch. “China’s legal system needs to take account of the
circumstances that can lead domestic violence survivors to resort to
violence in self-defense.”

In November 2010, Li Yan, from Sichuan Province, killed her husband Tan
Yong following a violent dispute. According to Li’s lawyer, Tan had kicked
Li and threatened to shoot her with an air rifle when Li grabbed the rifle
and struck Tan with it, killing him. Li then dismembered Tan’s body.

Li and Tan had married in March 2009 and Tan started to abuse her soon
after. According to Li’s lawyers and her brother, Tan had abused Li in the
months prior to the murder: he had kicked and beaten her, locked her in
their home during the day without food or drink, locked her out overnight
on the balcony including during winter, burned her face and legs with
cigarette butts, and once dragged her down three flights of stairs by her
hair. Li had repeatedly complained about Tan’s abuses to the police, to
the neighborhood committee, and to the local branch of the
government-organized All China Women’s Federation (ACWF) as early as
August 2010. Evidence of that abuse, including police records, hospital
records, witness testimony, pictures of her injuries, and complaints to
the ACWF, were presented in court. Neither the police nor the ACWF
investigated the allegations against Tan. According to Li’s brother, the
police had told Li that this was a “family matter” and that she should
seek help from the local neighborhood committee.

However, the Ziyang City Intermediate People’s Court ruled that the
evidence was insufficient to confirm that Li suffered domestic violence.
Because all the witness statements affirming Li’s injuries had come from
her friends and family, and because the authorities to whom Li had
reported the abuse had taken no action to investigate and confirm Tan was
the source of the abuse, the court ruled that it was not clear that
domestic violence had taken place. The court convicted her of “intentional
homicide” and stated that the death penalty is warranted because “the
murder was committed in a cruel fashion and that the consequences severe.”

An appeals court upheld this decision in August 2012. Li’s case was then
transferred to the Supreme People’s Court, which reportedly approved the
execution recently but has not yet issued the execution order, according
to lawyers familiar with the case. Once the order is issued, Li will be
executed within seven days.

Since her case and sentence have become known to the public in recent
weeks, nearly 400 Chinese citizens, lawyers, and scholars have signed
petitions <http://cadpnet.4ek.delldns.com/show.asp?id=1772> calling for a
halt of the execution. Separately, since November 7, more than 8,000
people <http://www.hbvhbv.name/> have signed another petition calling for
anti-domestic violence legislation. According to Chinese government
statistics <http://news.sohu.com/20130123/n364370990.shtml> released in
January 2013, one in four women in China are subjected to domestic
violence, including marital rape and beatings. Since 2000, local
governments across China have passed local regulations on domestic
violence. But these regulations focus on general principles and lack
specific provisions to effectively protect women from domestic violence.
In Sichuan Province, where Li Yan lives, the anti-domestic violence
regulation does not include protective orders for victims.

The growing call for anti-domestic violence legislation prompted the
Supreme People’s Court’s own investigation
<http://news.china.com.cn/live/2013-01/16/content_18208301.htm> into the
issue. The investigation, made public in January 2013, found current laws
and regulations insufficient to protect women from domestic violence.
According to the Supreme People’s Court, there is no clear standard
stipulating the conditions under which investigations and prosecutions
should be initiated; as a result, such investigations and prosecutions are
rare. Even when such cases do come before courts, judges tend to treat
domestic violence as a marital dispute and issue light punishments to
abusers. The Supreme People’s Court investigation also pointed out that in
cases where women respond to violence with violence, law enforcement
agencies tend to discount their claims of abuse and failed to take them
into account during sentencing.

Since 2008, the state-run All China Women’s Federation has recommended
that the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, draft a law to
address domestic violence. Apart from an announcement that such drafting
was in its work plans in early 2012, there has been no government
information on details, timing, or when such draft laws might be discussed
or adopted.

As a state party to several international treaties that guarantee women’s
rights <http://www.hrw.org/topic/womens-rights>, the Chinese government is
obliged to take effective measures to address domestic violence and its
consequences for women. These actions should include effective legal
measures, including penal sanctions, civil remedies, and compensatory
provisions; preventive measures, including public information and
education programs to change attitudes about the roles and status of men
and women; and protective measures, including shelters, counseling,
rehabilitation, and support services. China should enact a comprehensive
law against domestic violence in accordance with the good practices
detailed in the UN Handbook on Legislation on Violence Against Women
<http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/handbook/Handbook%20for%20legislation
%20on%20violence%20against%20women.pdf>.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an
inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment. A majority of countries in
the world have abolished the practice. On December 18, 2007, the United
Nations General Assembly passed a resolution by a wide margin calling for
a worldwide moratorium on executions.

“Executing Li Yan does nothing to ensure justice in this horrific
incident,” said Richardson. “Even worse, it sends a message to those
enduring domestic violence across China that abuses against them will go
unpunished.”