On June 7, 2011, 21-year old Yao Jiaxin, was executed for the murder of restaurant waitress Zhang Miao. Jiaxin admitted stabbing Miao to death 7 months earlier after he accidentally hit her with his car while she was riding her bicycle.

 

He explained to police that he saw her writing down his license plate number after the accident and he was afraid he would get caught and get in trouble. So he took out his knife and stabbed her 8 times.

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Pictured here is the murder victims father. He sits, waiting for a visit from Jiaxin’s father. The photographer who took this picture staged the visit so that an image could be made of the two parents reconciling.

 

The murderer’s father never showed up.

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Questions for reflection:

If you were the photographer staging this event, and you had to guess which parent – the father of the victim or the father of the murderer – would not show up, which parent do you think would not agree to meet?

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Does it surprise you that the parent who had a right to be angry and unforgiving was the parent that showed up?

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Why might the father of the murderer be the one who did not come to the meeting?

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