CSO’s Joint Press Release on Huang Linkai’s Death Penalty Execution

2025/01/16 23:54
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(Co-Issued by Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, Judicial Reform Foundation, Taiwan Association for Human Rights, and Covenants Watch)
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The execution of the death penalty, which violates procedural justice and Constitutional Court's Judgment 113 Hsien-Pan-8 (hereinafter referred to as "Constitutional Judgment 8"), has nothing to do with making a safer society, increasing people's trust in the government, and resolving deadlocks among political parties. It will only make our society more bloodthirsty and the general public more disgusted with the government and political status quo.We strongly condemn the government's attempt to use the death penalty as a way to divert political attention.
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The Attorney General should, according to the Constitutional Judgment, file extraordinary appeals for death row prisoners
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According to the Constitutional Judgment 8, the Constitutional Court has informed the applicants (death row prisoners), including Huang Linkai, that "the applicants may request the Attorney General to file an extraordinary appeal." The granting of this special right of request allows the applicants to obtain an "indirect" extraordinary appeal right as an exception, that is, the applicants may exercise their individual rights to relief through the existing extraordinary appeal channel of criminal proceedings. If the claims of the applicants in the case have procedurally suffice the special extraordinary relief requirements, the Attorney General should file an extraordinary appeal for their interests. As for whether a case meets the criteria of "the most serious crime under the circumstances", the Attorney General does not have the discretion to decide whether "the most serious crime under the circumstances" standard has been met. The reason why the Constitutional Court recognizes extraordinary appeal as a remedy for individual cases is at least implicit in the determination that the final judgment of the applicant cases are "automatically in contravention of laws and regulations"(當然違背法令) due to retroactive exception. At this moment, the Attorney General should follow the Constitutional Judgment 8 and have no room for discretion, and should file an extraordinary appeal to the Supreme Court, so that the Supreme Court may conduct a substantive review of the applicant’s case to determine whether it meets the criteria for the “most serious crime” in order to protect the applicant’s legitimate rights and interests.
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Justice Minister Chung Ming-chiam should abide by the Constitutional Court’s Judgement
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The prosecutorial system should allow defense lawyers sufficient time to request extraordinary appeals for the remaining 36 death row inmates – especially considering that at least two of them, Chiu Ho-shun and Wang Hsin-fu were wrongly convicted and are being rescued by CSOs domestically and internationally. We solemnly urge the Minister of Justice not to execute any more death penalty cases before the Prosecutor General has comprehensively reviewed all cases.
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The judicial system should substantively review special relief grounds in death penalty conviction cases

​Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, Judicial Reform Foundation, Taiwan Association for Human Rights, and Covenants Watch has jointly issued a press release – 【Unlawful Execution is Inherently Wanton Murder｜Civil Society Groups’ solemn condemnation to the death penalty execution by the Ministry of Justice】-- at January 16th 2025, 19:30. In the press release we ​ condemned the Ministry of Justice for recklessly executing the death penalty within less than half of an year of the issue date of Constitutional Judgment 8. Huang Linkai’s case remains unexamined about whether his death penalty sentence was made "unanimously", which is one of the requirements set by the Constitutional Judgment 8. Moreover, his death penalty sentencing has undergone any “presentencing investigation report,” therefore leave critical doubt the case meets the strictest due process requirements of the Constitution.
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Quickly following the CSOs’ joint press release, at 8:30 p.m. Huang Linkai's defence team submitted a formal request for extraordinary appeal to the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, urging the Ministry of Justice to stop the execution. At the same time, his defence team faxed the Ministry of Justice’s reply slip to the Taipei Detention Center andmade a phone call to the Taipei Detention Center to inform them that the letter had been submitted and that they should inform the executive prosecutor immediately.
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Subsequently, Huang Linkai's defence team then submitted a petition for retrial to the Taiwan High Court and a petition for temporary measure to the Constitutional Court, asking the Justices to deliver an injunction to Huang Linkai's execution process. 
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Regardless, the Ministry of Justice still insisted on performing an unlawful execution and put Huang Linkai to death at 10:02 pm, according to the Ministry of Justice press conference.
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Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty and CSOs hereby, once again, express our exasperation and disappointment. Next year marks the fourth international review of ICCPR. In the past three rounds of reviews, despite international experts’ repeated warning, the Taiwanese government not only insisted on ignoring those professional recommendations but has also repeatedly provocatively violate international human rights standards by carrying out death penalty executions. This cast a shadow over Taiwan's image as a democratic society committed to human rights. History will not forget the decision made today by the DPP government under Lai Ching-te.
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