EN Version

Death penalty costs US millions

AFP , WASHINGTON
TAIPEI Times, Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009, Page 7

Even when executions are not carried out, the death penalty costs US states hundreds of millions of dollars a year, depleting budgets in the midst of economic crisis, a study released yesterday found.

“It is doubtful in today’s economic climate that any legislature would introduce the death penalty if faced with the reality that each execution would cost taxpayers 25 million dollars, or that the state might spend more than 100 million dollars over several years and produce few or no executions,” argued Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) and the report’s author.

WORLD DAY 2009
10th October, 7th World Day Against the Death Penalty

Press Release

See the Color of Life
Understanding the Death Penalty

Today is the World Day Against the Death Penalty. Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP台灣廢除死刑推動聯盟), European Economic and Trade Office (歐洲經貿辦事處), Human Rights Education Curriculum and Instruction Team (教育部人權教育議題輔導群), Humanistic Education Foundation (人本教育文教基金會), Taiwan Association for Human Rights (台灣人權促進會) and Chang Fo-Chuan Human Rights Study Center of Soochow University (東吳大學張佛泉人權研究中心) jointly host the press conference. In the conference, representatives of above groups inaugurate the seed-teacher empowerment workshop: “See the Color of Life: Understanding the Death Penalty ” and sign the global petition “Appeal for the End of Execution of Children in the World ”. (Chinese Version is here )

JUSTICE SERVED?: The case, which has bounced between courts for two decades, has been panned for flaws including the submission of coerced confessions as evidence
By Celia Llopis-Jepsen
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009, Page 4

The defendant sentenced to death 11 times in Taiwan’s longest ongoing criminal case has no hope that his newest retrial will be any different, his lawyer said yesterday on the opening day of the trial at the Taiwan High Court. “Chiou Ho-shun [邱和順] lost hope long ago,” lawyer Stephen Lee (李勝雄), who has represented Chiou at all 11 retrials, said in an interview.

This is the 12th time the Taipei branch of the Taiwan High Court hears the case, which has been roundly condemned by the Judicial Reform Foundation and strongly criticized by Amnesty International for a series of flaws — most notably the submission of coerced confessions as evidence and the lack of forensic evidence linking the defendants to the crimes.

佛教反對死刑：歷史與教理的初步探索
溫金柯（財團法人淨土宗文教基金會教理哲學研究部主任）

摘要
聯合國近半個世紀正在推動的國際廢除死刑運動，可說是以基督教文明為基礎發展起來的。在人類歷史上，過去也曾經有過一波伴隨著佛教信仰的傳播，而產生的國際廢除死刑運動。日本、中國、西藏及印度，都曾受佛教影響而廢止死刑。本文擬以歷史回溯的方式，陳述這一運動的發生過程，並根據佛教的傳記及戒律、教義發展史，重現在佛教信仰中廢除死刑的實踐及理論的發展。佛教雖然發生於一個有死刑的社會，但佛教從一開始就否定死刑，並且救贖死刑犯、拒絕執行死刑，並從戒律學上以死刑為非法，貶低法官及行刑者。大乘佛教興起以後，要求菩薩必須救贖死刑犯，若菩薩擔任國王則須廢止死刑，觀世音菩薩成為佛教信仰傳統中，救贖死刑犯的典型人物。佛教廢除死刑的思想雖以源自印度傳統婆羅門教的輪迴、業報及追求解脫的觀念為基礎，但是佛陀的人格及其教團堅拒死刑的實踐，應是推動這一波國際廢止死刑運動的最終根源。