The Taichung Branch of the Taiwan High Court yesterday ruled that death-row inmate Cheng Hsing-tse (鄭性澤) should be released on bail pending a retrial on the charges that have seen him imprisoned for 14 years, including 10 on death row.
The 49-year-old Cheng, who has always maintained his innocence, walked out of the Taichung Prison in the afternoon and was met by family members and supporters, including representatives of the Taiwan Association for Innocence and the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty.
After 5,231 days of incarceration, Cheng said: “This taste of freedom is a really great feeling.”
Photo: Hsu Kuo-chen, Taipei Times
“I have been imprisoned for the past 14 years, but now I am so happy that I can spend this Mother’s Day with my family,” he said as he embraced his mother.
Some supporters came with sunflowers and handed one to Cheng, as they hailed his release as a victory for human rights and shouted: “Cheng is innocent of the crime” and “We don’t want to have any more wrongful convictions.”
Cheng’s attorney Law Bing-cheng (羅秉成) said the day has been late in coming because his client is innocent and has been jailed for too long.
“Today he is set free, and for this we have to thank the prosecutors and the judges. This case has also set milestones in Taiwan’s judiciary, because it is the first time that a man whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court is going to receive a retrial. I am certain Cheng has the courage to face the retrial so that he can clear his name,” Law said.
Yesterday’s decision barred Cheng from leaving the country or going out to sea.
Cheng’s case has gone through seven trials and seven retrials, including the Supreme Court upholding his death sentence in 2006.
A retrial was ordered after Cheng’s defense team presented new evidence raising doubts about his conviction for the death of police officer Su Hsien-pi (蘇憲丕) during an exchange of gunfire at a KTV parlor in Taichung in 2002 and prosecutors concurred.
The prosecutors’ application in March for a retrial was the first time in the nation’s history that a retrial has been sought in a case where the Supreme Court’s final ruling upheld the original death sentence.
Cheng is the fifth death row inmate to be released from prison for a retrial, including the Hsichih Trio case of Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bin-lang (劉秉郎) and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳), who were found not guilty in 2012.
Human rights groups have long highlighted what they said were defects in the original investigation and questionable evidence used by prosecutors, including a confession that Cheng had been tortured and coerced into making.
After re-examining the forensic evidence and findings from a new investigative report, Taichung prosecutor Wu Tsui-fang (吳萃芳) decided a retrial was needed because the evidence indicated that another suspect had fired the fatal gunshot that killed Su, not Cheng.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS