Huugjilt

The Second Strike Hard Against Crime Campaign was initiated by Jiang Zemin, the new Chinese president who had been groomed by former state leader Deng Xiaoping. The Huugjilt case is one of the many wrongful convictions it has caused. ==Crime==

A woman surnamed Yang was raped and murdered inside a public toilet Huugjilt had discovered the body and alerted authorities, but he was arrested and accused of committing the crime. ==Trial and execution of Huugjilt==

The original trial operated on the grounds that Huugjilt had confessed to the crime. In an opinion article about the case, the China Daily stated, "It has not been rare for higher authorities to exert pressure on local public security departments and judiciary to crack serious murder cases. Nor has it been rare for the police to extort confessions through torture. And suspects have been sentenced without solid evidence except for extorted confessions." Huugjilt was held for 61 days. on 10 June of that year; he was 18 at the time of his death. ==Zhao Zhihong's confession==

Several media reports released after the execution stated that the court system used incorrect information, and several legal experts concurred with this thesis. On December 5, 2006, while still serving his sentence at the Hohhot No. 1 Detention Center, Zhao Zhihong confessed to killing Yang. The Chinese justice system determined Zhao had committed a total of 21 crimes. He was originally scheduled to be tried for killing nine women and girls in late 2006, but this trial was adjourned and pushed back to November 2014. On 5 January 2015, Zhao's trial by the Hohhot Intermediate People's Court commenced. On Monday 9 February 2015, Zhao received a death sentence, was asked to pay 102,768 renminbi to the victims, had all political rights removed forever, and received a fine of 53,000 renminbi ($8,464 U.S. dollars). He was executed in 2019. ==Exoneration and aftermath==

After Zhao's confession, Huugjilt's parents demanded that the court system revisit the murder case so Huugjilt may be exonerated. The retrial of Huugjilt in the High People's Court of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region took place from November through December 2014, concluding with his exoneration. It was partially on the grounds that in his confession he did not properly recount the crime nor the physical description and accent of Yang. ==References==