Ma Jiajue

Ma Jiajue, who originated from a rural village in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was the son of father Ma Jianfu and mother Li Fengying; he had an older brother and two sisters. He attended Binzhou Middle School for junior high school and Binyang Middle School for high school. He had run away from home in November 1999 out of fear that he would not pass the gaokao. He was discovered by police in Guigang after his school reported his disappearance to the police. His school gave him a disciplinary punishment after he was returned. He received admission to Yunnan University in September 2000 and became a biochemistry student.[2]

According to his confession, Ma Jiajue killed his four roommates between February 13 and 15 in 2004.[2] They died due to blunt-force trauma. Ma stated that he killed them because the roommates had accused him of cheating in a card game and bullying him.[1] On February 23 of that year, the bodies were discovered.[2] Ma Jiajue went on the run for 21 days. Police offered a 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) reward for information that would result in the suspect's capture. On March 15 he was captured in Sanya.[1]

The Intermediate People's Court of Kunming sentenced Ma Jiajue to death on April 24. The Yunnan Provincial Higher People's Court did an automatic review of the verdict and upheld it. On Thursday June 17, 2004, Ma Jiajue was executed.[1]

In 2004, Xinhua stated: "The murder case has attracted nationwide attention, with experts and ordinary people heatedly discussing how a college student could choose to kill his young schoolmates."[1]