Chinese Woman Who Killed Abusive Husband Has Death Sentence Reduced

A Chinese woman has had her death sentence reduced to life in prison after a court agreed that domestic abuse drove her to murder her husband.

The New York Times reports that if Li Yan behaves in prison for two years, her sentence will be reduced from execution to life. The ruling by the Sichuan Higher People's Court also allowed for the possibility that it may be further reduced with the passage of more time.

The reduction to just life in prison came as a surprise to some Chinese observers, who thought it would have been reduced further.

After the ruling was announced, the family of Yan's husband became unruly. They threw objects at Yan and her lawyer while also hurling epithets.

The murder occurred in 2010 after more than a year of abuse. Yan's husband would often pull her hair and slam her head into the wall of their home. He also used Yan as an ashtray, regularly putting out cigarettes on her bare flesh. He also made her sleep outside on cold nights. Yan said that after such abuse, he would also often abuse her sexually.

Yan said she regularly sought help from the police, courts, hospitals, and a government organization whose purpose is to help women. None of them would help her, driving her to commit the murder.

Yan said the murder occurred one night when her husband shot her with an air gun. She said she grabbed the gun and beat him to death with it. Afterward, she cut off his head and tried to dispose of the body. She eventually confessed to a neighbor who reported it to police.

Yan's sentence reduction is part of a larger trend where women who reacted with violence to domestic abuse have received lighter sentences.