Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

This TV grab shows two masked officers taking Yao Jiaxin to the execution field in Xian city, northwest Chinas Shaanxi province, 7 June 2011. Xu kangping/AP/Press Association Images
China

Chinese student executed for road rage murder

The 21-year-old student stabbed a young mother to death after accidentally hitting her with his car so he would not have to pay compensation.

A CHINESE STUDENT has been executed for stabbing a woman to death in a vicious road rage attack, after he accidentally knocked her over with his car, because he feared he might have had to pay her compensation.

Yao Jiaxin, 21, was most likely killed by lethal injection after recently losing his appeal to the Supreme People’s Court, the Guardian reports.

Last April, Yao knocked a woman off her bike in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province. He became enraged when the victim, 26-year-old mother Zhang Miao, jotted down his licence plate as he thought she would try to seek compensation for her minor injuries.

Xinhua news agency reports that the court said in a statement: “Yao stabbed the victim’s chest, stomach and back several times until she died. The motive was extremely despicable, the measures extremely cruel and the consequences extremely serious”.

The case became the focus of massive internet attention and had been linked to growing anger over perceived double standards in justice applied to the elite and to regular citizens. The case has been compared, not always appropriately, to a separate incident – in which the son of a prominent policeman allegedly told witnesses to a fatal traffic accident he was responsible for that he would not be prosecuted because of his connections.

After Yoa had confessed to Miao’s murder, he told police that he feared a “peasant woman would be hard to deal with” over the accident, the BBC reports.

Your Voice
Readers Comments
7
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.