A total of 177 students and one professor from Fudan University have signed a petition that asked Shanghai Higher People's Court not to execute a graduate student convicted of poisoning his roommate last year, a Beijing newspaper reported Wednesday.

The petition requested that the court grant the former student, Lin Senhao, a reprieve on his death sentence to allow him to atone for his crime, according to a report in The Mirror.

Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's court sentenced Lin, 28, from Shantou, Guangdong Province, to death on February 18, after he was found guilty of intentional homicide, the report said.

Lin was charged with killing his roommate, Huang Yang, last April by spiking their dorm room's water with toxic chemicals.

Lin's lawyer filed an appeal seven days after the verdict. Shanghai Higher People's Court will handle the appeal, but has not announced a trial date, the report said. The petition condemned Huang's murder and agreed that Lin should be punished, but asked the court for leniency because Lin donated money to charitable causes and cared for others, the court said. They asserted that Lin was not a ruthless killer.

Courts often hand out death sentences with reprieves, which in most cases amounts to a sentence of life in prison.

However, a criminal law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law said the petition will likely have little influence on the court when it rules on the appeal due to the severity of the charge, according to the report.

The professor said there are only a few circumstances in which a court will alter a sentence for a murder conviction, such as when a victim's family forgives the defendant.

Global Times