Letter asks for leniency in poisoning case

What did they say?

Father of the victim

Student sentenced to death for poisoning roommate

China's court cases of the year

Huang Guoqiang, father of victim Huang Yang, does not accept the petition signed by Fudan University students and teachers. Huang Guoqiang, a middle school teacher, lives with his wife in Zigong, Sichuan province. He told local media that the proposal to let killer Lin Senhao take care of him and his wife in the future, as a replacement for Huang Yang, is a ruse to get the court to lift Lin's death penalty.

"I do not agree with the students who said Lin is not an extremely cruel person," Huang said. "If he is not cruel, why did he put so much poison in the drinking water? If he is not cruel, why didn't he stop my son from drinking the water? If he is not cruel, why didn't he tell the doctors what poisons he put in the water, while my son was groaning in pain on his sickbed?"

Huang and his wife keep their home as it was before their son's death. All of Huang Yang's personal things, from a handkerchief to a pen, were left untouched in his room, as if his parents were awaiting his return.

"Lin deserves the death sentence," Huang said, with a mixture of relief and grief. "There is no doubt about the time-honored life-for-a-life rule in China. If not, I am an irresponsible father."

Relatives of the suspect

Lin Senhao's father, Lin Zunyao, and other relatives from Shantou, Guangdong province, twice tried to visit Huang Guoqiang and his wife in Sichuan in the past half-year to plead for mercy and forgiveness. But Huang refused to meet with them.

Lin Zunyao's nephew told the media: "The death sentence of Lin Senhao in the first trial brought down my uncle and aunt completely. What we are doing is striving for the Huang family's forgiveness - to let the parents on both sides walk out of their grief, but not rub salt in their wounds."

Lin Zunyao's wife, who has heart disease, has not appeared in public.

Lin did not respond to questions from the media outside the court in late February in Shanghai after the first trial. He just stood facing a wall, sobbing sorrowfully, with his back to the cameras and microphones. The sound of his weeping and images of his gray hair and trembling shoulders were the only things recorded that day.

Lin Zunyao sent two text messages to Huang Guoqiang to apologize for his son's "joke". The messages angered Huang because he doesn't accept the characterization of the actions that led to the death of his son.

Lin told the media later that he did not mean to defend the act, he just wanted to explain that his son is a good boy, not a cruel murderer.

Students who signed the petition

Students petitioned on behalf of Lin Senhao in a letter. He should not be executed, they said, even though he committed a crime worthy of the death penalty.

Lin is not a cruel person, the students wrote, and he has done some good things in school, such as donating to charity causes and maintaining an excellent academic record. They expressed hope that the judicial authorities can give him a second chance to be a new person.

"We appeal to the court not to impose the death sentence immediately. Lin and all of his classmates can try their best to care for Huang's parents," the petition said.

"From a humanitarian perspective, I do not want to see Lin's parents suffer grief similar to Huang's - losing their only son. There is no reason to take a person's life just for the sake of punishing him," one student who signed the letter wrote. "We are not interfering with the court's judgment; we just appeal for leniency."

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