In 1995, 20-year-old Nie Shubin was sentenced to death and executed for the rape and murder of a woman in his native Hebei. In 2005, another man confessed to the crime, and Nie’s case became a rallying cry for lawyers and other advocates pushing for criminal justice reform in China, where more than 99 percent of those tried for crimes are convicted. Early last December, nearly two decades after Nie’s execution, the Supreme Court of China overturned his conviction, revealing deep flaws in the country’s justice system. In the above photo, Nie’s father embraces Chu Yang, a journalist from Henan Business Daily, who was one of the first to write about the possibility of Nie’s wrongful conviction.