China exonerates teen executed 18 years ago for rape, murder

BY MEGHA RAJAGOPALAN
BEIJING Mon Dec 15, 2014 5:11am EST

(Reuters) - China on Monday exonerated a teenager executed more than 18 years ago for the rape and murder of a woman, drawing approval from judicial reform advocates who saw his death as a symbol of the miscarriage of justice in capital punishment cases.

A retrial by an Inner Mongolian court found that Huugjilt, then 18 years old, was wrongly convicted in 1996 of raping and killing a woman in a public restroom.

Another man confessed to the murder in 2005, but a retrial was not conducted until this year, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

A court official apologized to Huugjilt's sobbing parents, who had been petitioning judicial authorities since 2006 to re-try the case, state media reported.

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