23 September 2024 :

Taiwan's constitutional court ruled on September 20, 2024 that the death penalty is constitutional but only for the most serious crimes with the most rigorous legal scrutiny, after considering a petition brought by 37 people who are on death row.
Despite Taiwan's reputation as Asia's most liberal democracy, the death penalty remains broadly popular according to opinion polls, though in recent years it has only rarely been carried out and violent crime is relatively low.
The court, which began hearing the case in April, ruled that though the right to life should be protected, such protections are "not absolute," judge Hsu Tzong-li said.
Rights groups in Taiwan, which was under martial law until 1987, said while there were some positives in the ruling, Taiwan needed to put an end to all executions.
"When will Taiwan finally abolish the death penalty? The road ahead will be even more difficult," said the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, which was supporting the case.
Still, the presidential office said the ruling was an important milestone in Taiwan's judicial system.
"The president understands that there are multiple voices in Taiwan society, and hopes everyone will continue to have dialogue and communication with an attitude of understanding, tolerance and respect," it said.
Taiwan's largest opposition party the Kuomintang expressed regret, saying the court was trying to in essence abolish the death penalty and was going against the feelings of most the island's people.
Taiwan has found itself in hot water internationally before for executions.
In 2020, the government announced the execution of a man convicted of killing six people in an arson attack just hours after winning praise from the European Union for a donation of six million face masks during the COVID pandemic. The EU then criticised Taiwan and called for executions to stop.

09 May 2024 :

A Kaohsiung man's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on May 7, 2024 by the Kaohsiung Branch of the Taiwan High Court, after his case was retried for the fourth time.
According to the court's verdict May 7, the man surnamed Liu was accused of robbing and killing a woman near Haluo market in Kaohsiung's Zuoying District on Dec. 3, 2014.
According to previous verdicts, Liu rode a scooter looking for his ex-girlfriend that day hoping to get back together, while carrying a hammer and planned to threaten her if she refused, but his girlfriend was not at home so he left.
Later the same day he saw a woman, who had just finished grocery shopping at Haluo market and was getting in her car, whom he proceeded to attack with the hammer in an attempt to steal the vehicle. The strike caused the woman to fall into the passenger seat, the initial verdicts said.
When the victim appeared to be regaining consciousness after the initial attack, Liu struck her on the head another 13 times.
However, he was unable to drive the car away as the steering wheel was locked and so took NT$2,000 (US$61.79) from her purse and raped her before leaving, the earlier verdicts concluded.
The woman, a retired teacher, was later found dead in the car by police.
Liu received the death sentence for robbing and killing the woman in all four previous verdicts.
However, after several appeals and the Supreme Court sending the case back to the Kaohsiung court four separate times, the latter ruled May 7 that the woman Liu robbed and killed was a random target.
The Kaohsiung court ruled that Liu did not plan to rob and kill the woman and therefore the crime does not fit the category of "most serious crimes" listed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the death penalty can only be implemented under such circumstances.
In addition, the court ruled that there is lack of evidence proving Liu stole NT$2,000 from the victim, despite the fact he confessed to doing so, and it is difficult to ascertain with certainty that he intended to kill the victim when he attacked her with the hammer.
Furthermore, the court said that results of psychological assessments and pre-sentence investigations showed that Liu is still civilizable, therefore his death penalty was commuted to a life sentence and disenfranchisement for life.
The ruling can still be appealed.
Meanwhile, Liu's sentence of 10 years for rape has already been affirmed in previous rulings.
Learning about the latest ruling, the victim's husband said he will do everything in his power to fight for justice for his wife.
Carrying the purse stolen from his wife by Liu, the husband, surnamed Chang, told reporters that Liu cut the hammer shorter to make it easier to carry with him, which indicates he did "plan to kill someone."
He added that Liu made sure his wife was alone, followed her and waited for her to get in the car. "Does this not count as planning (to kill her)?"
Chang then questioned why the court said there was a lack of evidence Liu stole from his wife and asked the family to produce evidence of the exact amount stolen, when Liu himself admitted to stealing about NT$2,000 during the investigation.
He also argued that Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital's report indicated there is a high possibility Liu could commit sexual offences again in 15 years, while Kaohsiung Municipal Kai-Syuan Psychiatric Hospital confirmed the man does not have mental health problems, all of which the court ignored.
In addition, Chang noted that Liu has three lawyers from the Legal Aid Foundation while he initially only had one from the Association for Victims Support. Even after hiring a second lawyer, he still has less representation.
Chang went on to said that in countries where the death penalty has been abolished, there is often the option of life imprisonment without parole to ensure that perpetrators cannot re-enter society.
However in Taiwan, a life sentence still comes with the possibility of parole, which not only fails to provide closure for victims and their families but also adds to their fear.
Under current conditions, Taiwan is not ready to abolish the death penalty, he stressed.

25 June 2024 :

China on June 21, 2024 threatened to impose the death penalty in extreme cases for "diehard" Taiwan independence separatists, a ratcheting up of pressure even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction on the democratically governed island.
China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has made no secret of its dislike of President Lai Ching-te who took office last month, saying he is a "separatist", and staged war games shortly after his inauguration.
Taiwan has complained of a pattern of ramped up Chinese pressure since Lai won the election in January, including ongoing military actions, trade sanctions and coast guard patrols around Taiwan-controlled islands next to China.
The new guidelines say China's courts, prosecutors, public and state security bodies should "severely punish Taiwan independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession crimes in accordance with the law, and resolutely defend national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity", according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency.
The guidelines are being issued in accordance with laws already on the books, including the 2005 anti-secession law, Xinhua said.
That law gives China the legal basis for military action against Taiwan if it secedes or seems about to.
Sun Ping, an official from China's Ministry of Public Security, told reporters in Beijing the maximum penalty for the "crime of secession" was the death penalty.
"The sharp sword of legal action will always hang high," she said.
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council on June 21 slammed Beijing's move, urging its people not to be threatened by China.
"The Beijing authorities have absolutely no jurisdiction over Taiwan, and the Chinese communists' so-called laws and norms have no binding force on our people. The government appeals to our country's people to feel at ease and not to be threatened or intimidated by the Chinese Communist Party," it said in a statement.
The guidelines detail what is considered a crime worthy of punishment, including promoting Taiwan's entry to international organisations where statehood is a condition, having "external official exchanges" and "suppressing" parties, groups and people that promote "reunification".
The guidelines add a further clause to what could be considered a crime - "other acts that seek to separate Taiwan from China" - meaning the rules can be broadly interpreted.
Lai has repeatedly offered to hold talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
China has taken legal measures against Taiwanese officials before, including imposing sanctions on Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan's former de facto ambassador to the United States and now the island's vice president.
Such punishments have little practical effect as Chinese courts do not have jurisdiction in Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.
Senior Taiwanese officials, including its president, also do not visit China.

19 March 2024 :

Taiwan’s constitutional court on March 18, 2024 declined to review an additional appeal lodged by 37 death row inmates on the grounds that it was submitted too late.
The 37 condemned inmates filed the appeal on Feb. 27, which was in addition to an already lodged appeal that the constitutional court will review beginning April 23, per CNA.
The supplementary appeal sought to argue that certain provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure and Taiwan’s regulations for carrying out executions should be subject to constitutional review.
The court rejected the supplementary appeal on March 18, considering it was not submitted within the timeframes laid out in the Constitutional Court Procedure Act. The act states that appeals must either be submitted before the act was passed, or within six months of its passing – a deadline the inmates did not meet.
The group of 37 death row inmates includes Wang Hsin-fu, a man who the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty says is innocent of the crime for which he was sentenced to death.