three people were sentenced to death by a Beijing court for involvement...

three people were sentenced to death by a Beijing court for involvement in the year's biggest gangland murder and robbery case, state media said. 
The three were part of a 17-member gang that was found to be behind four murders and a series of robberies, the China Daily reported from Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court.
Two other gang members were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, which in China routinely is commuted to life imprisonment, while the rest were sentenced to jail terms of up to 20 years.
The gang, made up of migrants from several northern provinces, targeted taxi drivers, forcing them to drive to remote places where they could rob them.
The four taxi drivers killed were murdered because they refused to hand over their money, it said.