According to the official microblog of the Shenyang Intermediate People's Court, Xia Junfeng, a street vendor who stabbed two urban management officers (chengguan) dead in 2009, was executed yesterday. The case triggered massive public attention when Xia was given the death penalty two years ago by the Liaoning Supreme People's court, but suspicions and debates have lingered.

Without doubt, the case is a tragedy for all who lost their lives and the grieving families, and is certain to create a stir.

Xia, a representative of the grass-roots who was working hard to support a poorly provided family, is more likely to receive empathy from ordinary people than the two officers, who were seen as "public power."

Given the intense relationship between ordinary Chinese people and some local law enforcement units, such as chengguan, the court's verdict is likely to be questioned.

But it should be noted that all the questions, doubts and debates should be based on sufficient knowledge about and reasonable analysis of the case instead of mere complaints and curses, which are basically made to vent personal resentment.

Voices on the Internet, based on Xia's testimony, tend to believe that he was forced to kill the two officers because he had been beaten by them. But during the trial, when the details became known to the public, there was no convincing evidence or witness to prove this was the case. Self-defense was not accepted by the court, which is clearly a legitimate decision.

Some netizens are also using the case to deliberately reinforce the disparities between the so-called different "class backgrounds." They think it is the main reason why Xia, a murderer with a grass-roots background, faced the death penalty, while Bogu Kailai, wife of the corrupt former high-ranking official Bo Xilai, gets a reprieve on her death sentence for plotting the murder of the British man Neil Heywood.

This is also another selective assumption which forcibly attributes the final verdicts with their respective social status. Bogu Kailai's mental disorder was confirmed as a factor that weakened her power of self-control. The death sentence with reprieve is an indisputable judgment made in compliance with China's Criminal Law.

However, groundless assumptions and doubts are grounded in terms of reflecting the lack of trust between the Chinese populace and law enforcement units.

It cannot be denied that unjust, false and erroneous cases, although accounting for a fraction of the total amount of cases every year, are corroding credibility which is fragile and was hard-earned. The improvement of China's judicial system needs to be realized case by case in a more prudent and transparent way.