Kao said the shackles were removed within about a month of the press conference.
The Taiwan Alliance and foundation hope their work prevents the Ministry of Justice from signing execution warrants, even if more prisoners are sentenced to death. A moratorium does not require legislation, Kao said.
VIEW THIS PAGE The prospects for this strategy look promising: Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) has publicly voiced disapproval of capital punishment, and reaffirmed that stance in an interview with the Taipei Times on Nov. 3.
“Everyone — the legislature and the public, knows I am for abolishing the death penalty,” she said.
Wang is the nation’s third justice minister to take that position, following her two predecessors under the previous administration, Shih Mao-lin (施茂林) and Chen Ding-nan (陳定南). Under them, the number of executions fell from 17 in 2000 to three in 2005.
But, Wang says, changing public opinion is the key to abolishing the death penalty.
“The public believes that having the death penalty will keep society safer,” Wang said, adding that she believes there is no definite link between the two.
“You cannot avoid the fact that the death penalty concerns the whole public,” Wang said, but at the same time, “the matter of [abolishing] the death penalty is one of respecting human rights.”
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