First Death Sentence Upheld in Taiwan Since Controversial Court Ruling

TaiwanPlus News

A convicted murderer will still face execution after courts upheld his death sentence. The decision has been welcomed by supporters of capital punishment after Taiwan's Constitutional Court last year ruled that its use is partially unconstitutional.

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00:00A Taiwan court has upheld the death sentence of a man who brutally murdered a woman four

00:06years ago.

00:07It is the first ruling in favor of capital punishment since its use was restricted by

00:12Taiwan's constitutional court last year.

00:14Now Rhys Ayres is live with us in Taipei with more on this.

00:18Rhys, given how seldom Taiwan actually implements the death penalty, why have judges decided

00:23that this case in particular deserves the harshest punishment?

00:29Well, it's likely to do something with the sheer brutality of this murder and also the

00:35lack of remorse shown by the perpetrator.

00:39It's a decision that's likely going to be celebrated by those that support the death

00:43penalty in Taiwan and polls show that over 80% of the Taiwanese public do support it.

00:50Now this case will be celebrated particularly because it's the first time that a death sentence

00:55has been upheld in Taiwan since, as you mentioned, last year that the courts ruled in September

01:02that the death penalty was only partially constitutional and that it should only be

01:07used in the most extreme cases and that its usage should be narrowed.

01:13Now back in late last year, a man who killed eight people, eight members of his own family

01:19in a fire, he actually had his death sentence commuted.

01:23That led some to question whether or not Taiwan's capital punishment laws were essentially defunct.

01:30The last time that Taiwan even actually put someone to death was in 2020, but this recent

01:35ruling shows that Taiwan is still willing to put people to death, that that is still

01:42on the table and in this instance it's due to the premeditated and gruesome nature of

01:49that killing.

01:50Now to briefly review, in October of 2020, a man from the southern city of Kaohsiung,

01:56he stalked, he kidnapped, raped and killed a Malaysian exchange student who was walking

02:02to her university dormitory.

02:04Subsequent investigations found that he'd attempted a similar attack on another woman

02:08beforehand.

02:09Luckily, that woman was able to fight and escape.

02:14Now skipping forwards to today, Taiwan's Supreme Court asked the local Kaohsiung court to review

02:19their sentencing, which they did, and they came to the same conclusion that this man

02:25should be put to death, showing that while it may be used sparingly, Taiwan does remain

02:31a country that's willing to put the worst criminals to death for the most heinous crimes.

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