Nurse receives compensation for wrongful conviction

Qian Renfeng, a former nurse from Southwest China's Yunnan province, has brought out a 1.72-million-yuan compensation (about $250,000) after being wrongly imprisoned for the last 14 years on a murder charge, said Qian's lawyer.

Fourteen years ago, Qian worked as a nurse at a kindergarten in Qiaojia county in Yunnan. One of her duties was to prepare the meals each day for kids.

On February 22, 2002, a child got sick and died of food poisoning, and two others were also hospitalized. Qian was coerced into "confessing" that she had mixed rat poison into the child's food. On September 3, 2002, a local court sentenced her to life in prison. Qian tried to appeal the decision up to the Yunnan Supreme Court, but all appeals failed.

Qian had never given up proving her innocence. In May of last year, the Yunnan procuratorate ruled that there was a lack of evidence to support Qian's conviction, and suggested that the court rehear the case. Finally, Qian was allowed to go free late last year.

Qian requested compensation for her time spent behind bars from the Yunnan Supreme Court in June of this year. As a result, she received 1.72 million yuan compensation for her wrongful conviction and imprisonment.