The defendant, Zhou Xinlin,was paroled from a 14-years sentence for theft and illegal gun possession, was accused of transporting and storing drugs in August 2015, shortly after his probation period ended. The police discovered 40,490 grams of methamphetamine in his residence and detained him along with a co-defendant. From August 15, he was placed under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL), a form of de facto solitary confinement widely criticised for the high risk of torture and mistreatment, for 16 days before being formally arrested.
The court found that Zhou purchased vehicles, rented an apartment, and smuggled methamphetamine from Myanmar into China. He was identified as the principal due to his leadership role and criminal history. In October 2016, he was sentenced to death in the first-instance verdict, but upon appeal, the second-instance court ordered a retrial. However, his death sentence was ultimately upheld and later approved by the Supreme People’s Court, considering his repeated offences that demonstrated the severity of intent. He spent three and a half years on death row before being executed on April 21, 2020.
China’s Criminal Law reserves a death sentence for those who transported large quantities of drug or committing with serious circumstances, although it does not qualify as a “most serious crime” warranting the death penalty under international law. His case was listed as one of the Supreme People’s Court’s typical drug-related cases of 2020.