The folly of judicial leniency

"Slap on the wrist" sentencing is very common in many jurisdictions worldwide. It is used far too indiscriminately -- as the case below shows

The Chinese man who killed his wife and dumped his child in Melbourne had been singled out as a potential killer a year before he murdered. New Zealand family courts are in the spotlight after it was revealed police had warned that martial arts expert Nai Yin Xue would kill his wife if released on bail over a 2006 conviction.

The following year he did just that, strangling An An Liu, 27, and leaving her naked body in the car boot before abandoning their daughter at Melbourne's Southern Cross Station and fleeing to the United States.

He will be sentenced this week after being found guilty by an all-female jury in Auckland's High Court last month. Since the conviction, investigations have brought to light the litany of charges against Xue, 55, for violence against Liu in the preceding year. When Xue first appeared in an Auckland court on September 21, 2006, charged with assaulting his young wife with a kitchen knife, the family court judge noted: "Police fear if she had not escaped, her injuries would have been severe or fatal."

Police again put their case opposing bail, saying Xue was "fully capable of killing the victim due to his training and discipline". They said he "created a climate of fear" in the house by using photographs of himself in threatening martial arts poses. However, he was released on bail after one week.

Xue faced court again in June 2007, just three months before Liu's death, that time charged with punching her in the face and threatening to kill her with a knife. Despite the viciousness of the attack, the court judge entered no punishment, setting him free, a decision widely criticised in New Zealand as "pathetic" and "bewildering".

But the courts have defended it, saying that Xue had no previous convictions and judges focused on sentencing practice that gave the best chance for "repair of the family unit".

Original report here



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