The Supreme Court yesterday sentenced a 23-year-old man, who had murdered his father with a hammer and stabbed his sister multiple times, to life imprisonment, overturning the death sentence given by lower courts.
Reading out the ruling, presiding judge Huang Yi-hsin (黃一鑫) said that while Wu Chi-hao (吳啟豪), of Hsinchu County’s Sinfong Township (新豐), had committed horrendous crimes by beating his father to death with a hammer and attempting to murder his sister with a pair of scissors, he had expressed regret for his actions, showed concern for the sister and maintained a harmonious relationship with his cellmates.
“In light of these findings, the court determined to sentence him to life imprisonment and deprive him of his civil rights for life. The verdict is final,” Huang said.
Wu, who had been unemployed since he dropped out of high school, had a quarrel with his drunk father on Jan. 8, 2011, after his father nagged him to get a job.
Wu dragged his father downstairs to the living room, where he hit his father in the head and face almost 20 times with an iron hammer, stopping only after his father showed no signs of life.
Wu then ran upstairs and stabbed his sister in the neck with a pair of scissors, reportedly to eliminate her as a witness. His sister fled the house, crying for help, and was taken to a hospital.
Wu turned himself in to police and was detained on a charge of murder.
Wu was given the death penalty by the Hsinchu District Court in his first trial, during which he threatened to “finish off his entire family if the court does not sentence him to death.”
In the second trial, the Taiwan High Court overturned the district court’s ruling and sentenced Wu to life, but it later sought the death penalty during the case’s first retrial.
The Supreme Court held a hearing on Jan. 22 to examine the justification for the death sentence.
Judicial experts said that while the Supreme Court’s presiding judges were entitled to make a ruling themselves, such verdicts were relatively rare because most judges tended to remand cases to lower courts for retrials or repeal previous rulings.
Wu’s youngest sister, who was away from home at the time of the murder, said she feared another tragedy should her brother ever be released on parole.
Although Wu had sent the family several letters of repentance, she said she doubted that her brother had truly changed.
Other relatives said yesterday’s verdict fell short of public expectations and they planned to seek another retrial or an extraordinary appeal.
The ruling sparked complaints among netizens.
“It is no lie that one can get away from a death penalty in Taiwan despite having killed one or two people,” wrote one netizen going by the name “wtula.”
Another netizen, who identified himself as “steward135,” wrote: “There would be no death sentence at all as long as every culprit pretends to shows remorse for their crimes after being caught.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique