Human Rights Groups Slam Change to Death Penalty Appeal Rule

TaiwanPlus News

Human rights groups in Taiwan are slamming a recent rule change by the government that will make it easier to execute prisoners, allowing executions to take place while a prisoner's final appeal is pending.

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00:00New regulations on how the death penalty is carried out in Taiwan come into force today.

00:05And the rules are drawing fierce criticism from rights groups that say they remove some

00:09legal protections.

00:11Rick Glowatt has been following the issue of capital punishment in Taiwan and joins

00:16us live from our newsroom in Taipei.

00:18Rick, what do these changes mean?

00:22So, it's a small but significant tweak from the Ministry of Justice that means that whilst

00:28an extraordinary appeal, which is effectively a last resort legal challenge to an execution,

00:34is ongoing, a prisoner can still be executed.

00:37Previously, whilst an appeal like this was ongoing, an execution could not be carried

00:42out.

00:43Rights groups, as you said, speaking out against this change, including the Taiwan Association

00:47of Human Rights, saying that it puts those prisoners on death row at risk and that executions

00:53may now happen faster and that there is a greater chance of a miscarriage of justice.

00:58The death penalty is a big issue here in Taiwan.

01:01There's widespread support for it among the public.

01:04But this change comes after the Constitutional Court was asked to weigh in on the issue last

01:09year and actually limited the crimes that could be punished by death.

01:13This is the first, there's only been one execution carried out since that ruling.

01:18The one and only execution under the current president who has the final say on executions.

01:23So to find out more about the issue of capital punishment in Taiwan, I spoke to Taipei-based

01:29lawyer Casey Yang, and I began by asking him if this change would mean more executions

01:34here in Taiwan.

01:35It might be, but however, this new rule is not going to say the government should execute

01:43more people.

01:44This new rule is trying to loosen the rule for the government to execute.

01:53For example, in the past, this rule put down some limitation for the government cannot execute.

02:02However, in the new rule, it takes away a little limitation.

02:10The original rule was that if there was some pending case, such as constitutional appeal or

02:17such as another kind of remedy is taking place, the death penalty cannot be carried out.

02:25However, this rule has been removed, so now that the government can carry out the execution, even if

02:34those cases still have some pending in the court.

02:38Given that this change has seen opposition from human rights groups, legal professionals,

02:44why do you think the current Taiwan government would want to make this change to the death penalty?

02:50In our opinion, the government, so for the government, they want to respond to the public opinion,

02:57because many Taiwanese people in the past criticized the death penalty for being carried out too

03:03slowly.

03:04So, so I think this is the major, this is a major issue for the government to do this.

03:09They want to take out, they want to take out some limitation, so they, so they can easily

03:14to, so they can easily to carry out the execution.

03:17The execution of the death penalty has always been highly political in Taiwan, because in

03:22Taiwan, it is easily stirred public emotion.

03:26So the politicians like to manipulate this issue in Taiwan.

03:29And sometimes the government may also choose to carry out execution when their approval rating

03:35are low to please the public.

03:38So this issue is always public.

03:40It's not, it's not merely a legal issue.

03:42It's always a political issue in Taiwan.

03:44And why is there so much support for the death penalty in Taiwan?

03:49In our opinion, I think that because Taiwanese people believe that, believe the, because

03:55Taiwanese people believe the concept of karma and the idea that those who kill others should

04:00themselves be killed.

04:01I think another reason might be that sensational media coverage of serious crime, that media

04:08always highlight the cruelty of the crimes and the suffering of the victims.

04:13So it's very easy to stir public emotion and feel strong anger and a desire for revenge against the

04:21against the offender in the general public.

04:24There's currently 36 people on death row in Taiwan, people that of course now are facing

04:28an even more uncertain future.

04:30Rights groups here calling for these new rules to be suspended so they can be investigated

04:35and there can be greater transparency.

04:38Thanks Rick.

04:39And that was lawyer Casey Yang speaking there too.

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