Baby killer's death sentence confirmed in Beijing

The Beijing Higher People's Court morning rejected a babykiller's appeal and pronounced the final judgment on the crime of intentional homicide on Nov 28, 2013. The court in Beijing upheld the death sentence on the man who killed an infant girl in July.(Source: news.xinhuanet.com)

A court in Beijing on Friday upheld the death sentence on a man who killed an infant girl, aged 2, when he snatched her from her pram and threw her to the ground in July.

The Beijing Higher People's Court on Friday morning rejected the killer's appeal and pronounced the final judgment on the crime of intentional homicide.

Han Lei, 39, who claimed to be drunk at the time, grabbed the girl as he argued with her mother over a parking space and dashed her on the ground in the Daxing District of Beijing on July 23. He fled the scene but was arrested the next day.

The girl was severely injured and died days later in hospital.

Han was sentenced to death by the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court on Sept. 25, on charges of intentional homicide, but appealed to have his crime reduced to involuntary homicide on the grounds that he didn't know it was a baby carriage nor that he was hurling a baby.

According to China's law, involuntary homicide receives a sentence of three to seven years imprisonment, but intentional homicide carries a mandatory death sentence.