Wrongful Execution Reopens Death Penalty Debate By Dennis Engbarth
TAIPEI, Feb 5, 2011 (IPS) - Revelations that an Air Force private had apparently been wrongfully executed 15 years ago for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl have reopened the debate over Taiwan’s retention of the death penalty.
Taipei District and Taichung District prosecutors announced Jan. 28 that after a new investigation into the case, another former Air Force enlisted man had confessed to the crime.
The announcement prompted President Ma Ying-jeou to apologise to the mother of then 21-year-old Air Force private Chiang Kuo-ching, who was convicted for the crime and executed by gunshot in 1997. Ma also promised "to use the swiftest legal procedure" to clear Chiang's name and make reparations.
Taiwan urged to scrap death penalty after wrongful execution
Jan 31, 2011, 13:25 GMT
Taipei - Taiwan was urged on Monday to scrap the death penalty, after the government admitted that a soldier was wrongly executed for killing a girl 15 years ago.
'This case of Chiang Ching-kuo proves again there is a risk to carrying out the death penalty, because once a person is wrongly executed, the mistake cannot be corrected,' Lin Hsin-yi, executive director of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, told the German Press Agency dpa.
