Shaanxi Provincial Higher People's Court has yet to decide whether a man who has been sentenced to death for killing 11 people should receive a psychological examination in connection with an appeal filed on December 8.

The case has aroused national attention, with many legal and psychiatric experts suggesting that an examination would ensure that the judicial process is fair.

China Daily learned yesterday from a court official who refused to give his name that the court is still reviewing the case. The official said only that the court would insist on a fair procedure.

Zhang Hua, the lawyer representing Qiu Xinghua, the alleged murderer, said the court should have ruled within days after hearing the appeal.

"It may indicate some hope in the case," the lawyer said, adding that it was not clear what the psychiatric examination would reveal because his client showed signs of suffering from several mental disorders.

Qiu, 47, earlier confessed to killing 10 people on July 14 at a temple near his hometown of Ankang. He said he had killed another person and injured two more on July 31 while trying to flee the area.

The Ankang Intermediate People's Court sentenced Qiu to death on October 19, according to Zhang Yong, Qiu's lawyer in this first trial.

Qiu then filed an appeal. During the appeal hearing, at the Shaanxi Provincial Higher People's Court on December 8, his new lawyer, Zhang Hua, proposed that Qiu Xinghua undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

The court said it would delay deciding whether a psychiatric examination would be needed.

Legal and psychiatric experts had been calling for an examination even before the first trial.

Yang Desen, a former psychiatric expert for the World Health Organization and a professor at Zhongnan University's Xiangya Medical College, said the court would ensure justice by allowing a psychiatric exam.

"The examination should not aim at acquittal, but should tell us how he committed his crimes, whether he killed in a state of complete disorder," Yang was quoted as saying by Shanghai Morning News.

Five other legal experts called for a psychiatric examination after the first trial in an open letter posted on the Internet.

Meanwhile, other legal experts warned that the first group's open letter would influence the judiciary.

Jia Zhiming, a legal expert and professor at the Northwest Law University, said the case posed a challenge to the Shaanxi Provincial Higher People's Court and to Chinese law in general, because Qiu could be acquitted should an examination find him mentally unfit.

Source: China Daily