Li Xincao’s death from falling into the river, which has attracted much attention, was publicly pronounced in Kunming, Yunnan this morning. The Panlong District People’s Court of Kunming sentenced the defendant Luo Binggan to one year and six months’ imprisonment for the crime of negligent death, and ordered Luo Binggan to compensate Chen Meilian, the plaintiff in the incidental civil action, for economic losses of RMB 63,257.
It is deplorable that a female college student who was in her prime fell into the river and died. The video of Li Xincao being slapped and cuddled before her death circulated on the Internet once made the case city by the sea. How did a drinking party of four young people turn into a tragedy of drowning? A large amount of evidence presented during the trial completely restored the truth of the incident, and the reporter from the General Desk also conducted an exclusive interview with the relevant witnesses.
What happened from drunkenness to falling into the river?
At 2: 02 a.m. on September 9, 2019, the public security surveillance video of the Panlong River in Kunming city vaguely recorded a splash on the river, which was the last imprint left by 18-year-old Li Xincao before his death.
Li Xincao, female, a sophomore in a university in Kunming, was born in November 2000 in shizong county, Qujing City, Yunnan Province. At noon on September 8, 2019, Li Xincao’s roommate Ren Mou invited her and two other roommates to have dinner with friends in downtown Kunming, and the other two roommates were unable to go because of something.
At 15: 42, they met with Ren’s junior high school alumni Luo Binggan and Li Mouhao in hang lung plaza. Luo Binggan, born in 1997, is the initiator of this gathering and the defendant in this negligent death case.
At 17: 40 on the same day, Li Xincao and other four people first came to a hot pot restaurant for dinner, during which they did not drink. After dinner, at Luo Binggan’s suggestion, the four men went to two bars at 19: 41 and 21: 35 respectively, and drank 24 bottles of beer successively.
At 22: 38, the four of them left the bar. Li Xincao and Ren Moushen offered to rush back to school. They walked to the nearby subway station to buy tickets. Unexpectedly, the last subway left before their eyes, with a time difference of 13 seconds. What they didn’t expect was that the 13 seconds would be a fatal miss.
After missing the last subway, Li Xincao and others decided to find a bar to continue drinking. At 23: 03 that night, they walked into the hot bar near Panlong River and sat in the seat next to the door, which is only a dozen meters away from Panlong River.
Four people ordered a case of beer, and Luo Binggan ordered four strong cocktails. First, each of the four people finished a glass of mixed wine, and then began to continue drinking beer.
Reporter:What are these four cocktails made of?
Bartender:Vodka, bailey and coffee liqueur.
Reporter:How many degrees are these three wines?
Bartender:The degree is not clear, but vodka has the highest degree.
The video shows that Li Xincao drank five glasses of beer in a row. At 23: 59: 34, she began to show obvious signs of drunkenness and suddenly fell on Luo Binggan’s leg sitting next to her.
Defendant Luo Binggan:I was very surprised that she fell on my leg. I don’t know what happened. I let her lean for a while and she sat up by herself. Then I went to see her. At that time, I felt that she might be really drunk and a little restless.
Three people will Li Xincao up, at this time of Li Xincao already sit instability, prone on the table. Three minutes later, Li Xincao got up and went to the bathroom, and returned five minutes later. At this time, it was 00: 11 on September 9, and Li Xincao fell on Luo Binggan’s leg for the second time.
Defendant Luo Binggan:Then she sat up by herself, still in a very agitated state, and felt that she was getting more and more agitated.
00: 14, Luo Binggan walked out of the bar, and then Li Xincao got up and stumbled out of the bar, followed by Ren Mou Shen and Li Moumou Hao.
Li moumou:As soon as I saw it, I said I’d go out with her to see the situation, and then I followed her out. Then we were at the door of the bar, where a tree was crouching. At that time, Li Xincao probably wanted to vomit, but he didn’t vomit after retching a few times.
A minute later, Ren Moushen and Luo Binggan helped Li Xincao back to the bar and let her lie on the chair.
After that, Li Xincao walked out of the bar twice. After Li Xincao’s mood calmed down a little, the four of them continued to drink. 00: 44: 40, Li Xincao took the beer opposite Luo Binggan and drank it directly at the bottle mouth. At 00: 58, Li Xincao got up and walked out of the bar for the fourth time, and Ren Moushen and Li Mouhao followed him out.
Ren Moushen:Li Xincao began to sit on the ground and cry, so I squatted down to hug her. Luo Binggan and I helped her to the railing. She was quiet for a while, then picked her up from the ground and pulled her up. She began to put her feet on the railing, as if her legs were up, reaching her knees. Then Luo Binggan and I pulled her down from the railing.
Defendant Luo Binggan:At that time, I was very scared. At that time, I told Ren that she seemed to want to jump into the river. At that time, the two of us were particularly nervous, so we took Li Xincao back to the bar.
According to the memories of Luo Binggan and others, this was the first time that Li Xincao showed signs of jumping into the river that night.
Twenty-three minutes later, the four returned to the bar from the river. At 01: 37: 11, Li Xincao suddenly took the opposite bottle and smashed it on the table, then threw the items on the table to the ground.
At 01: 37: 44, Li Xincao walked out of the bar for the fifth time, followed by three people. Six minutes later, three people helped Li Xincao back to the bar and let her lie on the chair. The video shows that Luo Binggan leans close to Li Xincao’s body.
Defendant Luo Binggan:I took her bag, put it under her head to cushion her, and immediately bent down. At that time, I had only one idea, just trying to calm her down. We really wanted to calm her down, so I bent down and said something to comfort her in her ear.
01: 45: 15, Luo Binggan got up, Li Xincao sat up at the same time, then grabbed the black items on the table and threw them on the ground. Luo Binggan picked up the items and grabbed Li Xincao’s hand.
Defendant Luo Binggan:Just like a child, if she can’t stop crying, it will make people very upset. At that time, I was annoyed. At that time, this was my mentality.
Li moumou:Luo Binggan said, it’s really no good for her to go on like this. Just say, if it’s really no good, slap her in the face and see.
Ren Moushen:Luo Binggan said for the second time that he had met many people who were so drunk before, and they all woke up after slapping them twice.
01: 47: 54, Luo Binggan slapped Li Xincao’s left face twice in a row, and Li Xincao was stunned after getting these two slaps. At 01: 57: 37, Li Xincao took a sip of water and poured it on his head. About three minutes later, Li Xincao walked out of the bar for the sixth time. Among the other three people, only Li Moumou chased him out for the first time, which was the last time that Li Xincao left the bar.
She stopped a taxi in front of the bar.
Taxi driver:That night, I drove from here, and this woman took a taxi here. I stopped the car and stopped. She got on the bus from here on the left. At that time, she was sitting in the back row when she got on the bus. Another man told me not to drag her away because she was drunk, and that man got off right in front. At that time, there were many cars stuck behind me.
Li moumou:I’ll catch up with the master first. Master, wait a minute. Don’t be busy driving.
Video shows that Luo Binggan and Ren Moushen, who are still drinking and chatting in the bar, have also walked out of the bar one after another. Luo Binggan went to explain to the vehicles stuck in the back. At this time, Li Xincao suddenly opened the car door and ran to the river.
Li moumou:I heard her open the door. I looked up and said, how did she run down? Then I quickly took two steps to run to the guardrail, and she had already fallen down. I held the guardrail with my left hand, and my right hand began to bend down to catch it, but before I caught her, she had already fallen into the river. As soon as she fell into the river, I immediately began to call for help. I said that someone had jumped into the river.
At 2: 02: 4 in the morning, Li Xincao jumped over the guardrail by the river and fell into the Panlong River. At 2: 04: 7, Luo Binggan called 110. Three minutes later, the 110 Command Center of Kunming Public Security Bureau informed the police along the river and the Kunming Fire Rescue Detachment to carry out search and rescue. Due to the rapidity of the river, Li Xincao who fell into the water was not found that night. On September 11th, Li Xincao’s body was salvaged by the police of the Water Branch at the East Pier of Dianchi Lake. The forensic doctor went to the scene to conduct a preliminary inquest on the body, confirmed that there was no obvious trauma on the body surface, and initially judged that it was drowning.
What is the basis for determining the crime of negligent death?
Excessive drinking and improper rescue made Li Xincao’s death heartbreaking and avoidable. Defendant Luo Binggan was sentenced to one year and six months in the first instance for committing the crime of negligent death. So what are Luo Binggan’s mistakes? Are these mistakes enough to constitute a crime? In response to these focal issues, the reporter of the General Desk interviewed the prosecutor of the case.
On September 9, 2019, the day Li Xincao fell into the river, the police informed her family. On September 15th, 2019, Li Xincao’s cousin went to the Drum Tower Police Station to check the surveillance video of the bar, and found that Luo Binggan was suspected of committing indecency against Li Xincao. The next day, she came to the Drum Tower Police Station again to report the case and asked the police to file a case.
On October 14, 2019, Panlong Public Security Bureau filed a case for investigation. On the same day, the Kunming Municipal Public Security Bureau upgraded and set up a task force to investigate, invited a number of national criminal investigation experts to Kunming to guide the investigation of the case, and carried out on-site inspection, interview investigation and corpse inspection in an all-round way. Procuratorial organs carry out legal supervision over the investigation of cases.
Mother Yanchang, spokesperson of Kunming Public Security Bureau:After inspection, we ruled out the death from mechanical injury, and ruled out the death from own diseases. No trace of sexual assault was found in Li Xincao’s life, and no common poisonous drugs were found. After investigation by public security organs in various ways and means, it is believed that Li Xincao fell into the water and died after being drunk.
In addition, the public security organs found that the circumstances of Ren Moushen and Li Moumou were obviously minor and the social harm was not great. After soliciting the opinions of the procuratorate, they were released from bail pending trial and terminated the investigation.
On October 22, 2019, Kunming police applied to the procuratorate for approval to arrest Luo Binggan for "compulsory indecency and insult" and "negligent death". On August 12, 2020, the People’s Procuratorate of Panlong District prosecuted Luo Binggan for allegedly causing death through negligence.
Reporter:At first, he was arrested on the charge of compulsory indecency and insult. Why did this charge disappear and become the crime of negligent death?
Wang Shuang, Procurator of the People’s Procuratorate of Panlong District, Kunming:Because the crime of compulsory indecency and insult is mainly to protect a private part, we found through the frame-by-frame review of this video surveillance that although Luo Binggan had such a move of bending over Li Xincao, there was no contact with the private part, then this slap in the face later, although in such a public occasion, seemed to be a public insult to the victim, but subjectively, according to Luo Binggan’s confession and the statements of Li Moumou and Ren Moumou, hit. Therefore, combining objective behavior and subjective intention, we think that Luo Binggan’s behavior does not constitute the crime of compulsory indecency and insult.
For the serious consequences of Li Xincao’s drunken drowning, Luo Binggan was convicted of negligent death according to law. According to Article 233 of the Criminal Law, the crime of causing death by negligence refers to the subjective negligence or overconfidence, and the objective behavior and result of causing death by negligence. So where is the boundary between crime and non-crime in this drowning death case that happened during drinking at a party?
Reporter:What is the basis for prosecuting Luo Binggan for the crime of negligent death?
Wang Shuang, Procurator of the People’s Procuratorate of Panlong District, Kunming:We think that Luo Binggan, as an inviter, then played a leading role in the whole process. When Li Xincao was seriously drunk that day, Luo Binggan had a duty of care in criminal law.
The procuratorate determined that when Li Xincao’s drunken reaction was obviously aggravated, especially after he walked out of the bar for the fourth time, he showed signs of wanting to jump into the river. At this time, Luo Binggan had foreseen that Li Xincao might endanger his life.
Wang Shuang, Procurator of the People’s Procuratorate of Panlong District, Kunming:After these abnormal behaviors, Luo Binggan failed to fulfill an effective duty of nursing and caring. Instead, he bent over Li Xincao and slapped Li Xincao in the face. These behaviors carried out by Luo Binggan stimulated Li Xincao’s mood to get out of control.
For the rescue and protection measures taken by Luo Binggan, the prosecution believes that it has far exceeded the responsibility and obligation of a co-drinker to protect his companions during normal drinking.
Wang Shuang, Procurator of the People’s Procuratorate of Panlong District, Kunming:Especially when Li Mouhao put forward some reasonable suggestions, such as calling 120 to send Li Xincao to the hospital and asking for help from the police, Luo Binggan did not adopt them. Therefore, we think that Luo Binggan’s subjective mentality of overconfidence leads to his failure to effectively protect Li Xincao, and ultimately there is a causal relationship between this behavior and the result in the sense of criminal law, so we think that Luo Binggan’s behavior constitutes a crime of negligent death.
Reporter:On the same day, there were also Li Moumou and Ren Moumou who were drinking together. Why did they only pursue Luo Binggan’s criminal responsibility?
Wang Shuang, Procurator of the People’s Procuratorate of Panlong District, Kunming:Ren Moushen and Li Mouhao, because they didn’t do some inappropriate behavior to Li Xincao that day, they took some care and assistance to Li Xincao. Therefore, the responsibilities of Ren Mou Shen and Li Mou Hao are relatively slight, and we believe that these two people do not constitute the crime of negligent death.
The focus of the trial: Does negligence constitute a crime?
On September 19, 2020, the Panlong District People’s Court of Kunming held a public hearing on the case according to law, and the defendant Luo Binggan was accused of negligent death and appeared in court for trial. In court, how to characterize Luo Binggan’s behavior has become the focus of controversy between the prosecution and the defense.
At 9: 00 a.m. on September 19th, the trial officially began, and Li Xincao’s mother appeared in court as a plaintiff in criminal incidental civil proceedings. The People’s Procuratorate of Panlong District accused that Luo Binggan should be investigated for criminal responsibility for the crime of negligent death.
During the trial, the public prosecution agency produced physical evidence, documentary evidence, witness testimony, audio-visual materials, expert opinions and the defendant’s statement, and the defendant Luo Binggan and his defender made cross-examination opinions on the evidence. Luo Binggan’s defender believes that Luo Binggan is just an inviter and drinker of a party, and his behavior that night has fulfilled his duty of protection. The two sides debated whether Luo Binggan constituted the crime of negligent death for two rounds.
Defender of Luo Binggan:Judging from this case, Luo Binggan’s behavior is an act of inviting everyone to a party and then suggesting that everyone drink. This defender believes that this act is not an illegal act in itself, nor a criminal act. Secondly, in this case, Luo Binggan took at least the actions and measures that he thought he could do when he foresaw that Li Xincao would commit acts that endangered life and health.
Regarding the defense opinions put forward by the defenders, the public prosecutor believes that Luo Binggan, as the proponent of the three wine games, has already had the duty of care in criminal law after Li Xincao’s drunkenness was abnormal, and his improper behaviors such as leaning over and slapping the face directly stimulated Li Xincao, who was already drunk.
Wang Shuang, Procurator of the People’s Procuratorate of Panlong District, Kunming:After Luo Binggan carried out the above misconduct, Li Xincao appeared more exciting behaviors, such as smashing ashtrays and lifting tablecloths. It was the defendant’s misconduct that stimulated Li Xincao and aggravated his personal danger. Therefore, the prosecutor wanted to say that Luo Binggan’s behavior had a causal relationship with the result of Li Xincao’s drowning in the river. Li Xincao’s death was not caused by his own drunkenness.
Prosecutor:You found something abnormal in Li Xincao. Why didn’t you call the police or send Li Xincao to the hospital?
Defendant Luo Binggan:I think it’s because of my lack of social experience. I don’t think 110 policemen will care about this kind of drunken madness. For 120, I don’t think I can afford the medical expenses. Another reason is that the three of us were watching over Li Xincao at that time, and one or two people were watching over her every minute, thinking that she would not have an accident.
During the trial, Luo Binggan pleaded guilty in court, regretted his behavior that night and apologized to Li Xincao’s mother.
Defendant Luo Binggan:I feel particularly guilty about this matter, and I am particularly sorry. Because Li Xincao was with us that day, but we really didn’t protect her, which led to such a tragedy. But please believe that my heart never wants or wants to see such a tragedy happen. I am deeply sorry for this, and finally say "I’m sorry" to my mother.
According to the accused facts and evidence, the collegial panel concluded that Luo Binggan should bear the responsibility of negligence in the sense of criminal law for Li Xincao’s death.
Qin Dongdong, President of Criminal Trial Chamber of Panlong District People’s Court in Kunming:After a series of behaviors endangering his own safety in Li Xincao, Luo Binggan not only failed to take correct measures, such as sending Li Xincao to see a doctor, stopping drinking or sending Li Xincao back to the dormitory to rest, but continued to drink. And in this process, the improper behavior of slapping on the face further stimulated Li Xincao and eventually led to Li Xincao’s death. We think that Luo Binggan was at fault for a series of actions and Li Xincao finally fell into the river.
Expert: people who drink together are responsible for accidents.
In recent years, it is not uncommon in life that drunken people are injured or killed accidentally because of excessive drinking at parties. What kind of obligations and responsibilities do people who drink at the same table have to drunken people? What enlightenment does this case bring us?
According to Liu Junhai, a professor at China Renmin University, according to the relevant provisions of the Tort Liability Law, when someone is drunk in the process of drinking at a party, a specific legal relationship will automatically be formed between the same drinkers.
For accidents after drunkenness, drunkards, as full civil actors, are mainly responsible for their own life safety, and organizers and fellow drinkers should also bear corresponding legal responsibilities according to specific circumstances.
Liu Junhai, Professor of Law School of Renmin University of China:After the drunkenness of fellow drinkers has happened, other people who are not drunk should maintain a high degree of sobriety, and you should fulfill the obligation of security for others. If you fail to fulfill your obligation to ensure the safety of others and violate this legal obligation, you will be liable to compensate others for the losses.
Due to excessive drinking and improper rescue, four young people had an ordinary gathering of friends, and finally one person fell into the river and drowned, and the other person took criminal responsibility.
Ren Moushen:This time we went out, we thought it was an ordinary drinking and shopping experience as before. We didn’t think anything would happen, and the days would be the same as before. Unexpectedly, just because of this time, I lost her forever, and she lost her life (choked).
There are no ifs in life, only consequences and results. The tragedy caused by drunkenness also sounded the alarm. Experts reminded young students at school to pay more attention to civilized moderation and mutual protection and assistance when drinking at parties.
Liu Junhai, Professor of Law School of Renmin University of China:Only by bringing the rights demands of your peers and fellow drinkers into your field of vision, can such citizens be responsible and truly have the civic literacy of the new era with legal awareness, ethical awareness and sense of responsibility.
(CCTV reporter Wu Chuang Li Wenjie Wu Bing Cheng Qin Liu Gang)