Hua Ruizhuo, who killed 14 women in Beijing, was executed Thursday, according to an order issued by Beijing Higher People's Court.
Hua, a driver for a construction company, killed the 14 women between July 1998 and June 2001 in Chaoyang District.
Hua's defender had applied for a lighter sentence for him, saying that all of Hua's victims were prostitutes whom Hua killed out of hatred. But the court maintained the death penalty because Hua's brutal killing posts a serious danger to society.
In a related development, several other murderers were also executed Thursday in Beijing.
(Xinhua News Agency February 1,2002)