A 21-year-old man was pardoned on Friday in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, more than two decades after his execution.

　　一名21岁的男子在被执行死刑20余年之后于本周五在辽宁省省会沈阳被改判无罪。

　　Nie Shubin, who worked in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, was sentenced to death in 1995 for the rape and murder of a woman the year before.

　　曾在河北省石家庄工作的聂树斌因在1994年强奸并谋杀一名妇女于1995年被判处死刑。

　　The Second Circuit Court, one of the arms of the Supreme People’s Court, announced his acquittal on Friday morning, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove Nie’s guilt.

　　最高人民法院第二巡回法庭于本周五上午宣布聂树斌无罪——没有足够的证据证明他有罪。

　　His mother Zhang Huanzhi, who spent 20 years fighting to clear her son’s name, witnessed the announcement accompanied by the family’s lawyer, Li Shuting, as well as a number of other observers.

　　聂树斌的母亲张焕枝用了20年的时间努力为自己的儿子洗清罪名，她在律师李树亭和很多其他观察员的陪同下见证了通知的宣布。

　　"I’m satisfied with the result. I’ve been expecting today for too long," Zhang said.

　　张焕枝表示：“我对结果很满意。我等今天等得太久了。”

　　The case first returned to public attention in 2005, when a man named Wang Shujin was detained in Hebei for another rape and murder. Wang confessed to the crimes for which Nie was executed, too.

　　本案件首次引起社会的关注是在2005年，当时一个名为王书金的男子因另一起强奸谋杀案在河北被拘留。他还自认是聂树斌案件的真凶。

　　Nie’s case was reopened, but in 2013 the Hebei Provincial High People’s Court declared that Wang’s confession did not relate to Nie’s case and submitted its findings to the Supreme People’s Court.

　　聂树斌案件于是被重启审判，但是在2013年，河北省高级人民法院宣布，王书金的认罪与聂树斌案件无联系，并将调查结果提交至最高人民法院。

　　One year later, the top court ordered Shandong Provincial High People’s Court to investigate the case again, which took over a year.

　　一年过后，最高人民法院要求山东省高级人民法院再次调查此案，耗时1年多。

　　On June 15, the top court said that it had decided to ask the Second Circuit Court to retry the case, as it found the original conviction for rape and homicide was based on insufficient evidence.

　　在7月15日，最高人民法院表示，已经决定要求第二巡回法院重审该案件，因为最初的强奸、杀人定罪证据不足。