Court verdict awaited in appeal of death sentence

Lao Rongzhi, who was sentenced to death last year for her involvement in multiple killings, has denied charges of intentional homicide in a second trial at the Jiangxi Provincial High People's Court that ended on Saturday.

Both the prosecution and defense expressed opinions on whether Lao's actions constituted intentional homicide and on the sentence she received in the first trial at the three-day hearing in Nanchang, Jiangxi province. The court said Lao's sentence will be announced at a later date.

Lao was convicted of intentional homicide, robbery and kidnapping and was given the death penalty by the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court in Jiangxi last September. She appealed the verdict.

During that trial, the intermediate court said that Lao, who was born in Jiangxi in 1974 and used to be a primary school teacher, colluded with her ex-boyfriend Fa Ziying in committing the crimes, which took place between 1996 and 1999.Lao would pick targets while working at entertainment venues and Fa would commit the crimes.

The pair participated in robberies, kidnappings and killings in Nanchang, in Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, in Changzhou in Jiangsu province and in Hefei in Anhui province. Their actions caused seven deaths, according to the intermediate court.

Fa was captured in 1999. He was sentenced to death and executed later that year. Lao spent about 20 years on the run, using a series of false identities to evade capture until she was caught in Fujian province in 2019.

During the second trial, Lao admitted to taking part in the kidnapping and robbery, but denied all charges of murder, claiming that she was physically and psychologically manipulated by her ex-boyfriend, according to a report by ThePaper.cn.

While giving her final statement, Lao apologized to the victims but claimed that her crimes didn't merit the death penalty.

Prosecutors refuted Lao's claims, saying that there were many contradictions in her statements. For example, while arguing that she had been raped by Fa and had had two abortions, Lao also said she got along with him like any ordinary couple, and even referred to him as "family" during the trial.

After prosecutors presented evidence proving that Lao didn't get an abortion at the hospital she claimed to have attended, she changed her testimony saying that she had had it at a small clinic.

Prosecutors claimed that evidence showed that Lao wasn't being controlled or threatened to commit the crimes and that the death sentence should be upheld.