TAIWAN: MAN EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD

August 31, 2018:

Taiwan executed a death-row inmate, the first execution carried out under President Tsai Ing-wen's government despite ongoing calls from rights groups to abolish the death penalty.
Lee Hung-chi was executed at a jail in southern Kaohsiung city on August 31 afternoon by firing squad, according to the justice ministry, for killing his ex-wife and five-year-old daughter in 2014.
Lee stabbed his ex-wife to death outside the kindergarten their two daughters attended and then took one of the girls to his car, where he attempted to kill both her and himself by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Lee survived after they were rescued but the girl died two months later despite treatment.
"His actions were brutal and ruthless... and inflicted irreparable harms to the victims' families," deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang told reporters.
The court had ruled there was no likelihood of Lee reforming, he added.