TAIWAN: SUPREME COURT COMMUTES FILIPINO’S DEATH SENTENCE TO LIFE

June 21, 2016: Instead of the death penalty, the Supreme Court in Taiwan commuted the sentence of a Filipino convicted of murder to life imprisonment, according to the state-run news agency.
Darwin Gorospe Sarmiento, 33, was initially sentenced by a district court in February 2015 to death for killing a grocery store owner in Taoyuan County in 2014, according to the Central News Agency.
Aside from murder, Sarmiento was also convicted of sexual assault and robbery.
But the Taiwan Supreme Court said Sarmiento did not intend to kill Lin Chang-hsing but was trying to rob the grocery store in Luzhu township.
It also noted Sarmiento had been under severe financial pressure to settle medical bills for his daughter who has a congenital heart disease.
Court records showed Sarmiento hit Lin with a hammer, rendering him unconscious, then stabbed him repeatedly in the neck with a screwdriver on April 11, 2014.
The store sometimes lends money to migrant workers seeking a loan, but when Lin declined Sarmiento’s request, the Filipino attacked him.
Sarmiento then sexually assaulted Lin’s wife and fled with N$300,000 from the store. He confessed to the crimes, saying he was in a bad mood when he went to the store to buy a telephone card.
He told police that he did not intend to kill Lin, but feared that the grocery owner would come after him. (Sources: newscentral.ph, 21/06/2016)