Teenage boy bags life imprisonment for bullying classmate to death
A Chinese court has sentenced a teenage boy to life imprisonment for the murder of his 13-year-old classmate, a case that has sparked nationwide debate on how juvenile offenders are treated.
The crime, which occurred in April, involved three boys under the age of 14 bullying and ultimately killing their classmate, surnamed Wang, in an abandoned greenhouse.
The perpetrators reportedly attacked Wang with a shovel before burying his body, a grim act that captured public attention.
On Monday, a court in Hebei province found one of the boys, surnamed Zhang, guilty of intentional homicide and sentenced him to life in prison. Another boy, surnamed Li, received a 12-year prison sentence, while the third boy, surnamed Ma, was sent to correctional education after the court ruled he did not harm the victim.
The case is among the first to apply China’s revised law that lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 in 2021 for “special cases” involving extremely cruel crimes resulting in death.
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“The means of the killing were particularly cruel, and the circumstances were particularly vile,” the prosecution stated, adding that the defendants, though under 14 at the time, bore criminal responsibility under Chinese law.
Murder in China is punishable by imprisonment or the death penalty, and this case has reignited discussions about the balance between accountability and rehabilitation for juvenile offenders.
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