The "Hsichih Trio" were in court again last Friday. After losing their freedom for 4,380 days and sitting on death row for 3,983 days, the three men convicted of a double murder -- Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bing-lang (劉秉郎) and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳) -- were released by the Taiwan High Court on Jan. 13, 2003, and we thought their ordeal was over. Unexpectedly, prosecutors appealed and the Supreme Court withdrew the not guilty ruling, returning the case to the High Court for retrial. The long wait for justice began again.
Most Taiwanese have probably forgotten about the case or thought it had been resolved. In fact, the appeal process has been almost at a standstill for three years. Su and the others were teenagers when they were arrested by police 15 years ago. Paying with their precious youth, they have experienced the cruelty and backwardness of Taiwan's judicial system, as well as its progress and maturation.
Taiwan's criminal prosecution system has seen great changes over the past 15 years, above all in the area of rules on evidence. In the past, a confession was considered the most powerful type of evidence. Investigators often ignored objective evidence in their attempts to obtain a confession. Also, if a defendant claimed to have been tortured by police, the burden of proof was on the defendant.
Fifteen years later, Article 100 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) now states: "The entire proceedings of an examination of the accused shall be recorded without interruption in audio, and also, if necessary, in video." Article 156 of the code states that if the accused says his or her confession was extracted by improper means, the prosecutor must prove that the confession was voluntary, or it cannot be used as evidence. Article 95 states that an accused must be informed that he has the right to remain silent, the right to a defense attorney and to request the investigation of evidence favorable to him.
Therefore we now see Lee Tai-an (
Although legal protection of rights has clearly improved, problems still exist, highlighting the need to improve law enforcement officials understanding of procedures. For example, prosecutors supported their request that Lee be detained a second time with "secret evidence." The court denied Lee and his lawyer the right to see that evidence, infringing his rights and possibly violating the Constitution.
Moreover, when prosecutors first requested that Lee be detained, they claimed the investigation could not move on without his detention. Although they later clarified that they had no intention of detaining him in order to force a confession, their initial attitude was questionable. When Lee exercised his right to remain silent during questioning, one official was quoted as saying, "Why does Taiwan have laws that protect someone like that?"
The Hsichih Trio case helped push the reform of the criminal procedure system. But 15 years on, the three men are still caught up in the process. Indeed, we saw the results of the reforms in Lee's case, but we also saw various flaws: The detention system, protection of suspects' defense rights, and the deepseated and outdated ideas of law enforcement personnel.
I am, nevertheless, optimistic about Taiwan's judicial system, which is gradually improving. Hopefully, we will not have to wait another 15 years for a fair and just system.
Kao Yung-cheng is the executive-general of the Judicial Reform Foundation.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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