Qin Yanhong was con­vict­ed of rape and mur­der in China in 1999. A pan­el of judges sen­tenced him to death. His con­vic­tion was the result of a con­fes­sion that fol­lowed days of tor­ture and inter­ror­ga­tion by police, despite the fact that such tac­tics are for­bid­den under Chinese law. The senior detec­tive on the case expressed absolute con­fi­dence in the con­vic­tion and even offered to accept the pun­ish­ment if it was proven wrong. In 2001, anoth­er man walked into a near­by police sta­tion and con­fessed to a spate of killings and described the mur­der that Mr. Qin had been accused of in per­fect detail. Even then, offi­cials tried to cov­er up the new rev­e­la­tions and keep Mr. Qin on death row until a reporter heard about the con­fes­sion by the ser­i­al killer. Qin was final­ly freed in 2002. In 2005 alone, there have been about 12 sim­i­lar rever­sals of con­vic­tions, includ­ing a num­ber for murder. 

(N.Y. Times, Sept. 21, 2005). See Innocence and International.

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