Hello, I'm Zhan Qingyun.

Two cases we have followed for a long time have recently reached their conclusions: the Yingying Zhang case and the Zhang Koukou case.

Recently I have received many comments, private messages on Weibo, and interview requests asking for my views on these cases. I have resisted because they are profoundly painful, and because there is a gap between my objective analysis as a legal professional and my emotional wishes as an ordinary person.

But after seeing some discussions that I felt were less than rational, I thought that now the cases are settled, and the lives lost and harm done cannot be restored, perhaps the only thing we can do is use them to understand and reflect on our justice systems.

Before sentencing in the Yingying Zhang case, a newspaper asked me to predict whether the suspect would ultimately receive the death penalty or life imprisonment. I did not think such a prediction was possible.

As we have said before, trials are filled with enormous uncertainty, for both prosecutors and defendants. That is why more than 90 percent of cases never reach trial.

In criminal cases, most end in a plea bargain, an agreement between the suspect and the prosecution. A death sentence in particular requires a unanimous decision by twelve jurors. Such a case is genuinely hard to predict—or perhaps the prediction we are reluctant to admit is that sentencing someone to death is very difficult.

I saw comments accusing the twelve jurors of being inhuman and irresponsible, indifferent because the crime had not happened to them.

I do not know who these jurors were or what considerations led to their decision. But I know people who have served as jurors in capital cases. From a distance, as observers, many things seem self-evident: imposing death appears obvious, and saying so is easy.

My friend said that when you actually sit in the jury box, you know your vote may truly kill a person. That person is standing before you and looks like an ordinary human being. The psychological burden of crossing the threshold to a death sentence is immense.

The jury system is therefore a social choice, and it inevitably brings consequences, including difficulty in sentencing.