Top court asks public to vote for 10 most influential cases

China's top court presented 20 cases to the public on Monday for voting on the 10 most influential cases of last year.

Details of the 20 cases and the voting process have been disclosed on the Supreme People's Court's website, WeChat account and micro blog.

Voting will end on Jan 20, with the results to be released soon afterward, the court said. 

The cases cover criminal, civil and administrative aspects of the law, and include several high-profile cases that generated heated public discussion last year. 

One involved Zhang Wenzhong, former chairman of retail company Wumei Holdings. He was cleared of charges of fraud, bribery and embezzlement after a retrial in the top court. The acquittal was regarded as a key step in protecting property rights and entrepreneurs. 

In another case, Gao Chengyong, a native of Baiyin in Gansu province, killed 11 female victims between May 1988 and February 2002. Gao was sentenced to death for multiple charges of intentional homicide, rape, and mutilation of corpses. 

The serial killing caused huge public outrage when the victims were found, but Gao was not a suspect until 2016, after police collected a blood sample from a relative of Gao's in another criminal investigation in 2015 and established the link thanks to developments in DNA technology. 

It is the fourth time the top court has organized such a vote, with the aim of improving the building of laws and explaining them to the public through individual cases.