Reporters surround the site where nine Mormon women and children were murdered on November 4 in an ambush in Galeana, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on Sunday. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was to meet with relatives of the victims of the attack, which happened on an isolated dirt road in a region known for turf wars between drug cartels fighting over lucrative trafficking routes to the US. Photo: AFP

The case of a man who was recently arrested for murdering an elderly man who reminded him to wear a mask at a supermarket in mid-March has attracted public attention, after it emerged that the suspect had been released from jail eight months ago while serving a term for a previous murder.

Questions and anger are brewing online as media disclosed that the suspect, surnamed Guo, was released from prison in July 2019, and unusually received nine commutations during his 14-year prison sentence dating from 2005 after he killed his girlfriend and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Beijing local procuratorate announced through its WeChat public account on Saturday that they have decided to arrest Guo for suspected intentional injury.

The Beijing procuratorate said Guo had beaten up a 72-year-old man after they quarreled in a supermarket, as he became irate after being reminded by the elderly not to take off his mask in the supermarket's check-out line.  

Guo then allegedly struck the man's head and hit two employees at the supermarket while escaping. The elderly man died on March 20 from craniocerebral injury after emergency treatment. 

According to The Beijing News, in 2004, after an argument, Guo killed his girlfriend, who was a student at Beijing University of Technology. The victim's classmates previously told media that Guo had a bad temper and was always beating his girlfriend. 

The Beijing News reported that the mother of the girl accepted compensation of 400,000 yuan ($56,413) from Guo's family, and begged the judge to give him a lighter punishment. One of Guo's previous schools also provided a certificate to demonstrate his good performance and appealed for a light punishment. 

Netizens are furious about Guo's "highly anti-social violence" amid the coronavirus outbreak and asked for a severe punishment this time. 

"He deserves to be sentenced to death for intentionally killing someone. He must not have a second chance for life," a netizen commented on Weibo. 

"How can this violent personality qualify for commutation nine times in 14 years?" questioned another, suspecting that there has been some shady dealing behind the scenes.

Chen Zonglin, a criminal law expert at Chongqing University, told the Global Times that given his violent tendencies and previous convictions for intentional homicide, Guo is likely to be sentenced to death. However, whether he committed manslaughter with intent or through negligence will also be crucial in determining whether he gets a stay of execution.

According to Chen, the frequency of nine commutations in 14 years is somewhat unusual, and generally in practice, there is one commutation every three years for good behavior.

Despite the limited access to Guo's past, Chen said it is still possible to achieve nine commutations in 14 years. "That not only requires excellent behavior, but also contributions like saving people and outstanding work in disaster relief, technical contributions like a patent for invention, as well as blowing the whistle on irregularities," Chen said.