Courts must apply the law and not be swayed by online debate

THE SUPREME PEOPLE'S Court has approved the death sentence handed down to Lin Senhao, a student at Fudan University in Shanghai, for murdering his roommate. His father says he expects the execution to be carried out within days. Discussions about whether the country should still have the death penalty may continue, but this particular case has come to its conclusion, says a Beijing Times editorial:

Whatever a court's ruling is, it is always open to challenge, and there are always those who want to abolish capital punishment and those who defend it.

We live in an age of mass media, and it is impossible to prevent judges from reading newspapers and browsing social networks. We must accept the fact that judges are aware of the public opinion about a case.