An unclear forensic report and the weakness of the evidence against the trio were the main focuses of controversy in the case.
These incongruities prompted the former state public prosecutor-general, Chen Han (陳涵), to file three extraordinary appeals to the Supreme Court on the trio's behalf.
In March 1991, Wu and Yeh were brutally murdered in their apartment home in Hsichih, Taipei County.
The police arrested four suspects, Su, Liu, Chuang and Wang, on Aug. 14, 1991.
Prosecutors charged them with murder on Oct. 4 of that year.
Su, Liu and Chuang were sentenced to death after the first trial at the Shihlin District Court on Feb. 18, 1992.
Other than Chen's three requests for extraordinary appeals -- all of which failed to sway the courts to change the verdict from guilty to not guilty -- defense counsel Su You-chen also filed an appeal to the Supreme Court on Aug. 21, 1998.
On Sept. 23, 1999, the Supreme Court accepted the appeal and ordered the Taiwan High Court to prepare to hold rehearings and to have a retrial. Yesterday's ruling was the culmination of that ordered retrial.
The first rehearing was held on Nov. 16, 2000.



