A Desecration of Life

Her sentence was handed down this week and it was a "lenient" 5 years in prison.

The judges at her trial felt sorry for her and believed she was "despairing of life."
A Chinese official connected to the case said what she did "caused only relatively small harm to society."

She was a mother who gave her twin 13 year old sons water laced with sleeping pills, and then she drowned them in a bathtub. After killing her sons, she dressed them in new pajamas.

The twin boys had been born prematurely and were diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

Even though Chinese courts usually deal harshly with murderers and sentence them to death or long prison terms, they felt sorry for this mother.

The mother had given up her job to care for the twins after finding it difficult to hire nannies. Her husband forgave her of the murders because after the death, they would no longer have to consider filing bankruptcy.

One of the judges is quoted as saying, "She deserved the lenient sentence. The murders resulted from years of mental burden."

The mother is quoted as saying, "I just wanted them to leave quietly."

But not to worry, this "caused only relatively small harm to society."