The family of a man executed for killing factory his...

The family of a man executed for killing factory his boss after being laid off insisted that Xu Yudong never planned to murder and that he should have been spared the death sentence.
His father, Xu Changshen, retired and frail after his son's death, keeps a photocopy the confession Xu made to the police after he knifed the Xianning Chemical Fibre Factory Chief Wang Shihua, causing his death.
On each page is the young man's thumbprint. "I thought if Factory Chief Wang didn't agree to more money, I would demand he return the gifts," Xu's confession states. "I only intended to threaten him."
Xu had offered Wang several money gifts after hearing that other workers laid off as China's economy slumped had bought their jobs back. However the job Wang offered him was a lot less than his mechanical studies qualified him for, and the severance package was less than that offered to other workers who had been earning less than him. He knifed Wang when he confronted the factory chief in his office about the package and a fight broke out between the two as Wang saw the knife Xu carried.
"We have neither wealth nor power," Xu Changshen said, his voice shaking. "That's the problem. We couldn't save my son's life."
Xu was executed by gunshot on January 18. Xu's parents had appealed to the province's Higher People's Court after the Xianning People's Intermediate Court had found their son guilty of murder but they still had received no official notification of the Higher People's Court decision when his execution took place.