The highest court in central China’s Henan province on Wednesday declared a man innocent after he was handed a suspended death sentence in 2006 for poisoning two children.

In November 2004, two children in a Henan village were found poisoned with tetramine, a common rodenticide. One child recovered; the other died. Wu Chunhong, a villager who had been involved in trivial disputes with the children’s family, was arrested and charged with homicide.

Wu’s family pleaded his innocence for over a decade, filing appeal after appeal. In September 2018, the Supreme People’s Court ruled there had been insufficient evidence to convict Wu of homicide and ordered a retrial in the Henan High People’s Court.

In an earlier interview with Sixth Tone’s sister publication The Paper, Wu’s daughter said her father never confessed to his alleged crime, and even refused to accept a commuted sentence.

In 2018, China’s courts corrected the verdicts of 1,821 criminal cases, reversing guilty decisions in the cases of 819 convicted criminals. (Image: The Paper)