Taiwan's justice minister, Tseng Yung-fu, speaks to reporters

TAIWAN: DEATH PENALTY POLICY REMAINS UNCHANGED - JUSTICE MINISTER

October 27, 2011: Taiwan’s Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu reaffirmed that there has been no change in the government's policy of minimizing rather than abolishing capital punishment.
"Our policy remains unchanged – the death penalty will be used as little as possible, but will not be scrapped for the time being," Tseng said during a Legislative Yuan (Parliament) session.
Tseng's statements came after the United Daily News (UDN) said in a front-page story the same day that Taiwan had reversed its policy on capital punishment. The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has suggested in its first-ever human rights report that prosecutors refrain from recommending the death sentence for defendants or criminal suspects, the paper said. "The suggestion aims to minimize and even avoid death sentencing," an MOJ official was quoted as saying. The newspaper cited the example of a case in Nantou County in which prosecutors recommended Wednesday either the death penalty or life imprisonment for a man charged with the death of four people. The man allegedly poisoned the four victims with a toxic industrial solvent in July. Usually, prosecutors would seek only the death penalty in such a case, the paper said.
Commenting on the newspaper report, Tseng said that even though prosecutors have been asked to recommend penalties other than capital punishment, the ministry has consistently respected prosecutors' decisions. Asked whether the 51 convicts on death row will be executed, Tseng said the government's stance remains unchanged because majority public opinion is still in favor of the death penalty, as various polls have shown. The death row prisoners "will be executed once all the relevant screening procedures are finalized," Tseng said. "There is no timetable for the executions," an MOJ official said.
Although the death penalty remains valid under the current law, the official said, the MOJ has been working to gradually limit the use of capital punishment, through measures such as scrapping the regulations that list the death sentence as the only option for certain types of crime.
The Judicial Yuan (the highest judicial organ in Taiwan) is also planning law revisions that, if passed, will require the Supreme Court to conduct an open debate on any death penalty case, the report said. (Sources: Central News Agency, 27/10/2011)