A higher court in east China's Shandong Province on Saturday officially began reconsideration of the case of a son who stabbed and killed a violent debt collector in his mother's defense.

The defendant, Yu Huan, was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 17 this year by the Intermediate People's Court of Liaocheng City.

Yu and three plaintiffs appealed after the trial.

Su Yinxia's company in Liaocheng, Shandong Province. /CCTV 13 Photo

The Shandong Provincial Higher People's Court, which had accepted the appeal in March this year, released a report during a press conference on Sunday saying that the ruling of the first trial had not taken into consideration a specific article in the Chinese Criminal Law.

"Criminal responsibility shall be borne where legitimate defense noticeably exceeds the necessary limits and causes great harm. However, consideration shall be given to imposing a mitigated punishment or to granting exemption from punishment," according to the second paragraph of article 20 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China.

The court noted that this provision will be considered during the second trial, stoking hope that the initial sentence could be modified.

Yu, from Guanxian County of the city of Liaocheng in Shandong, said he and his mother Su Yinxia were confronted by 10 debt collectors, who visited their company on April 14, 2016 after they failed to pay back their loans.

Picture of Yu Huan. /Hexun.com Photo

Yu stabbed four of the debt collectors with a knife reportedly because they insulted his mother. Reports have said that police did show up at the scene before the attack, but left despite festering tension.

The news quickly went viral on social media and aroused great sympathy from the public, with many saying that Yu's penalty was too harsh and others criticizing how police officers mishandled the situation.

The court noted on Sunday that police involved in the case failed to effectively control the situation and did not succeed in separating the debt collectors from Yu and his mother. However, it said that the behavior of law enforcers did not amount to dereliction of duty. 

Over 100 people attended the public retrial on Saturday, which Xinhua News Agency said it focused on the reason behind Yu's appeal, went over the facts presented in the first trial and dealt with new evidence from forensic investigators.

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