The “Hsichih Trio,” three former death row inmates in a long-running murder case that drew the attention of Amnesty International and other international human rights groups, were again found not guilty yesterday after the latest — and final — retrial by the Taiwan High Court.
Calling the 21-year-old case closed, the court said there was insufficient evidence to prove the trio committed the double murders they were charged with, adding that the verdict was final and no appeals would be allowed, in accordance with the Fair and Speedy Criminal Trials Act (刑事妥速審判法).
This was the third time Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bin-lang (劉秉郎) and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳) were acquitted by the High Court since their case was reopened in 2000.
Photo: CNA
The trio, along with Wang Wen-hsiao (王文孝), were accused of robbing and murdering Wu Min-han (吳銘漢) and his wife, Yeh Ying-lan (葉盈蘭), in then-Taipei County’s Sijhih (汐止) on March 24, 1991. The couple were found dead in their apartment. They had been stabbed 79 times.
Wang, an army conscript, was arrested on Aug. 13, 1991. He was convicted and sentenced under military law and executed on Jan. 11, 1992. His brother, Wang Wen-chung (王文忠), whom he had implicated, was also arrested and named three classmates — Su, Liu and Chuang — as accomplices.
Wang Wen-chung served two years in jail after being convicted of being an accomplice, but the trio were convicted of robbery and murder and sentenced to death in February 1992.
By 1995, they had exhausted all their legal appeals, but justice ministers repeatedly refused to sign their execution orders. In May 2000, the High Court decided to reopen the case for a retrial after state public prosecutor-general Chen Han (陳涵) made three extraordinary appeals to the Supreme Court.
In January 2003, the High Court acquitted the trio and released them on their own recognizance.
In the 11th retrial, the High Court again sentenced them to death in June 2007, but left them free while they continued their appeals.
The death sentences were reversed again in November 2010 after the 13th retrial, when the High Court again found them not guilty.
In their defense, the trio said they were tortured by police and the statements they made in interviews were against their free will.
The ruling said statements of Wang Wen-hsiao and Wang Wen-chung conflicted in several details with the statements made by Su, Lin and Liu.
The trio’s statements in police interviews on how the couple were stabbed contradicted the results of examinations by US forensic scientist Henry Lee (李昌鈺), the ruling added.
Lee had appeared in court in 2009 as an expert witness and said the victims suffered a total of 79 stab wounds, 56 of them on their heads, which was at odds with the trio’s statements that they had stabbed the couple all over their bodies. The ruling cited Lee as saying that the bloodstains and weapons marks were also not in accordance with the trio’s statements.
Lee said it was very likely a single killer carried out the murders.
Yesterday’s ruling said fingerprints at the site of the murders were Wang Wen-hsiao’s and hairs found there were Wu’s and his wife’s and that there was no evidence to prove the trio were there.
According to legal experts, the trio, who were incarcerated for 12 years before being released in January 2003, are eligible for compensation for a miscarriage of justice.
After the Taiwan High Court announced the verdict yesterday, Su said he had not been so happy since he was 19 years old.
“The trial started when I was 19 and now I am 41. All those years I was wrongfully accused and felt sad, hopeless and helpless. Our youth is already gone, but we appreciate that our attorneys and society supported us in all these years,” Su said.
However, not everyone was happy with yesterday’s verdict.
Outside the court, Wu’s brother, Wu Tan (吳唐), said the ruling failed to uphold justice for the victims.
“Justice has been overridden by human rights,” he said.
Shih Yi-lin (石宜琳), a lawyer representing the Wu family, said the judiciary was “the bigger loser” in the case because it had lost the trust of the people.
Additional reporting by Staff writer
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary