The retrial of the Hsichih Trio began in the Taiwan High Court yesterday amid great media fanfare.
Each of the accused claimed they were innocent of the murders from which they had previously been convicted and said that the confessions they made had been given while they were being tortured by police.
In the morning the trial focused on the testimony of the three defendants -- Su Chien-ho (
"[Police] put a thick yellow book against my chest and hammered me on the chest. And they then hung me upside down and started pouring water and urine into my mouth," Liu alleged during the hearing yesterday.
Liu said he had told prosecutors he had been tortured but they did not believe him because there were no visible wounds on his body.
Chuang told the three-judge panel sitting on the case that he was at home on the night of the murders which he could not have possibly committed.
Defense attorneys for Liu and Chuang said they both have suffered mental disorders after being imprisoned for over nine years. As a result, the judges especially inquired about the health of the two defendants before questioning them about the murder.
Apart from the defendants' statements, six witnesses also testified at the hearing, providing alibis.
"I was at the Chuangs' that night playing Majhong till 5am. And Chuang Lin-hsun was there playing with us," testified Kuo Ming-teh (
A neighbor of Liu's also testified she had seen Liu, Su, and Wang Wen-hsiao's younger brother Wang Wen-chung (
The three defendants and the younger Wang were friends. Earlier on the night in question, Liu, Su, and Wang had been out together while all the other defendants testified that Chuang was not with them.
Su and Liu claimed the elder Wang had left earlier for home that day and they then went to Keelung with the younger Wang. When the murder was committed, around 3am, they had already returned home, they claim.
Following the murder of the Hsichih couple, the police soon arrested Wang Wen-hsiao, whose family lived next to the couple and who had a record of sneaking into the couple's house and stealing from them.
Questioned by police, who doubted that over 70 stabs wounds inflicted on the couple could have been made by one person, Wang Wen-hsiao confessed to the crime and named his brother and said that three others were involved.
Wang Wen-chung was then forced to make a statement naming those he went out with that night.
The younger Wang was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail for being an accessory to the murder. Wang was summoned to testify in the trial but did not attend the hearing yesterday.
Wang Wen-hsiao's conviction and execution was not only based on his own confessions, but fingerprints found at the scene of the crime. But the reason the conviction of the trio has invoked enormous controversy is that neither the police nor the prosecutors have ever presented direct evidence to prove their guilt.
The proceedings in the court were also shown outside on two TV sets.
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