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ANALYSIS: Taiwan urged to rethink resumption of death penalty

2010/03/30

ANALYSIS: Taiwan urged to rethink resumption of death penalty
WORRYING TWIST: Moves by the Ma administration were a ‘shock’ to the international community, which was optimistic the nation would move toward abolition, a group says
By Shih Hsiu-chuan, STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Mar 29, 2010, Page 3, Taipei Times

Having observed a de facto moratorium on executions since late 2005, Taiwan now finds itself being closely scrutinized by international human rights groups, as a resumption of executions appears imminent.

Despite mounting pressure in the form of petitions and requests to meet officials where several have been urged to stand firm on Taiwan’s stated goal of abolishing the death penalty, it seems increasingly likely that the government is prepared to ignore the global trend to abolition in the face of a public that continues to support executions.

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Victim support systems are needed

2010/03/22

Victim support systems are needed

By Chang Chuan-fen 張娟芬

TAIPEI TIMES

Monday, Mar 22, 2010, Page 8

Capital punishment has been around for a long time, but the controversy over the death penalty has never been the cause of such agitation, indignation and passion as it is right now. It started with tense questioning by legislators, followed by incensed reporting in the media and then by impassioned protests from relatives of crime victims. Finally, it led to former minister of justice Wang Ching-feng's (王清峰) resignation, leaving her Cabinet post vacant. Perhaps the government should place a job ad: "The Republic of China Cabinet seeks to recruit one minister of justice - those unwilling to sign death warrants need not apply."

At the beginning, this debate had valid implications regarding the law and public interest. The Constitution protects people's right to life, and this protection can only be limited under certain circumstances. But capital punishment deprives convicts of their right to life, so does it contravene the nation's most basic law? This is the constitutional aspect of the death penalty debate.

In Taiwan's judicial system, a case is finalized following the trial in the first instance and two appeals, yet there is a procedural requirement for the minister of justice, who belongs to the executive arm of government, to review cases involving capital punishment and to sign execution warrants only after confirming that there are no doubtful aspects.

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死刑觀點

Rights covenants still little understood

2010/03/22

Rights covenants still little understood
LAW OF THE LAND: Many of Taiwan旧 policies and laws contravene two human rights covenants that were signed into law that mandate abolishing the death penalty
By Loa Iok-sin, STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Mar 22, 2010, Page 3

Despite ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Social and Cultural Rights (ICSCR), and the legislature’s passage of a law to make them legally binding, human rights activists, lawyers and students who attended a workshop on their implementation yesterday said that most of the nation’s officials and politicians still don’t know much about them.

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Stand up for abolition

2010/03/13

Stand up for abolition

Statement released by the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, March 12, 2010

（中文版：廢除死刑推動聯盟針對王清峰部長請辭下台的聲明）

'I never blamed those who claim their support for the death penalty in public. It’s a moral choice to stand for or against the death penalty and the choice belongs to one’s conscience. What bothers me is that, an intellectual, a self-proclaimed abolitionist is content to retain the death penalty, just because the public poll and opinion are for it.

Robert Badinter,
A open letter to Minister of Justice of the France,1977

The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) deeply regrets the oral resignation tendered yesterday by Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng and accepted by Premier Wu Den-yih and President Ma Ying-jeou.

Upon taking up her position as justice minister in 2008, Wang expressed support for abolishing the death penalty. Since Taiwan ratified the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), she has continued with the policy of gradually abolishing capital punishment, has examined death penalty cases and has maintained a moratorium on executions. Wang has also established a taskforce within the ministry to research the application of the death penalty and work toward abolition. The taskforce brings together academics, death penalty researchers and other concerned individuals for in-depth debate, with the goal of seeking alternatives to capital punishment. Her dedication to the matter was greatly appreciated.

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Taiwan must not go back to death road

2010/03/12

Taiwan must not go back to death road
Taiwan News
Page 9
2010-03-12 12:00 AM

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1201097&lang=eng_news&cate_img=46.jpg&cate_rss=news_Editorial

President Ma Ying-jeou has again displayed his lack of political leadership and courage by failing to stand up for Justice Minister Wang Ching-feng, a long time advocate of the abolishment of the death penalty, now that she has come under severe pressure for her firm stance not to implement death sentences.

Wang is not the first justice minister to refuse to sign death sentence orders as the current string of four years in which no death sentence has been executed began in 2006 under the former Democratic Progressive Party president Chen Shui-bian and then justice minister Shih Mao-lin.

When justice minister in 1997, Ma himself refused to sign order for the execution of the so-called "Hsichih Trio," three youths who charged that their confessions to a 1992 murder charge for which they received the death sentence had been extracted by police through torture.

The reasons for their actions include both the growing global consensus to abolish the death penalty as a "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment" and to uphold the principle that "every human being has the inherent right to life."

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Justice minister defends stance on executions

2010/03/12

Justice minister defends stance on executions
2010/03/10 20:04:28

Taipei, March 10 (CNA) Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng reaffirmed Wednesday her stance that there will be no executions of death row inmates carried out during her tenure, saying that the Constitution protects the right to life.

In a rare article issued late Tuesday, Wang said the abolition of capital punishment should not be just a future policy goal but should be something actually carried out in practice.

Reaffirming her promise that there will be no executions while she is serving her term, Wang said she would rather step down than give a green light for the nation to take someone's life.

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TAEDP Press Release, March 10, 2010

2010/03/11

Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty

Press Release, March 10, 2010

On February 23, Legislator Wu Yu-sheng said in a question session in the legislature that he was not opposed to abolishing the death penalty, but that the 44 prisoners currently on death row should be executed. On March 8, the nominee for prosecutor-general Huang Shi-ming told the legislature he supports scrapping capital punishment, but that a legal basis must be drawn up to allow for postponing executions. In absence of this, death row inmates should be executed soon after their sentence is finalized.

This morning, National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chiun, responding to a question from Legislator Wu, said finalized death penalty sentences should be carried out.

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North Carolina man exonerated after 17 years

2010/02/20

North Carolina man exonerated after 17 years
Gregory Taylor was convicted in 1993 of killing a prostitute. A state innocence panel unanimously rules that he didn't. It is the first exoneration by the only such agency in the U.S.

By David Zucchino
February 17, 2010, Los Angels Times
Reporting from Raleigh, N.C.

Seventeen years ago, Gregory Flynt Taylor was a crack cocaine abuser convicted of killing a prostitute during a late-night prowl for drugs.

On Wednesday, Taylor was a free man, the first convicted felon in U.S. history to be exonerated by a state-mandated innocence commission.

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Group Gives Up Death Penalty Work

2010/02/19

January 5, 2010, The New York Times

Sidebar

Group Gives Up Death Penalty Work

By ADAM LIPTAK

WASHINGTON

Last fall, the American Law Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the modern capital justice system almost 50 years ago, pronounced its project a failure and walked away from it.

There were other important death penalty developments last year: the number of death sentences continued to fall, Ohio switched to a single chemical for lethal injections and New Mexico repealed its death penalty entirely. But not one of them was as significant as the institute’s move, which represents a tectonic shift in legal theory.

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Oldest US death row inmate dies aged 94

2010/02/14

2009-02-14 BBC

The oldest death row inmate in the US has died of natural causes aged 94.

The Arizona Department of Corrections said Viva Leroy Nash died late on Friday at the state prison in Florence.

Nash had a criminal record dating back to the 1930s, and was deaf, mostly blind, mentally ill and had dementia, his lawyer said.

He was sentenced to death in 1983, for shooting a salesman after escaping from jail. But he managed to stave off his execution with a series of appeals.

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