Execution in a Killing That Fanned Class Rancor

A 21-year-old music student who accidentally struck a young woman with his car, then silenced her by stabbing her to death on the roadway, was executed Tuesday in Xi’an, in northwestern China, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The student, Yao Jiaxin, had lost an appeal of a death sentence handed down by a Xi’an court on April 22. The crime had fanned deep public resentment against the “fu er dai,” the “rich second generation” of privileged families who are widely believed to commit misdeeds with impunity because of their wealth or connections.

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Mr. Yao, a student at a local music conservatory, was driving a Chevy Cruze in Xi’an last Oct. 20 when he struck Ms. Zhang, who was riding a bicycle. She was not seriously injured, according to news reports. But when Mr. Yao realized that she was memorizing his license plate number, he stabbed her eight times with a knife. He said later that he feared the woman, a poor peasant, would “be hard to deal with” should she seek compensation for her injuries.

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Ms. Zhang’s murder came just four days after another privileged son, Li Qiming, struck and killed a young university student with his automobile in Hebei Province, then fled the scene after telling guards who sought to stop him, “My father is Li Gang,” a local police official. Both crimes stirred national outrage on China’s social-networking Web sites; in January, Li Qiming was sentenced to six years in prison.

link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/wo....html?ref=asia

In the small university town where I work, the richest students with the best cars are mostly from China.

nt

...death sentence carried out in June. Yikes