According to the spokesman of the Supreme People's Court(SPC), the court will carefully review the death sentence of Wu Ying, a Zhejiang businesswoman accused of illegal fundraising. This is worth applauding.
There are many questions that need to be clarified, and the SPC should also take the opinions of legal scholars into consideration.
For example, did Wu Ying deliberately conduct illegal fundraising from the start, or was she forced to do so due to later capital shortages?
According to media reports, Wu had both fixed assets and regular business activities, so it's hard to say that she deliberately carried out fraud from the start.
Besides, were those victims really cheated by Wu Ying? Some reports even pointed out that some "victims" are actually loan sharks. If that is true, they are also law-breakers. It's unfair to make Wu Ying take full responsibility.
When the National People's Congress made an amendment to the Criminal Law to cut the number of crimes subject to death penalty last year, it considered including fundraising fraud, but failed to push this through. But next time, eliminating the death penalty for this crime may be a top priority.
As the case concerns human life, it deserves careful investigation and consideration. The SPC has stated that it will review the case in accordance with the law and with great care. If it can really do so and fully consider the public questions over the case, the results of the death penalty review will be convincing.
The Beijing News