Cheng Chieh (鄭捷) — who killed four people and injured 22 in a stabbing frenzy on a Taipei MRT train in 2014 — was executed at 8:47pm last night at the Taipei Detention Center (臺北看守所), Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) said last night.
The Ministry of Justice signed the execution order at 5pm yesterday, and Cheng was executed with three gunshots at the center in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城), Chen said.
Legal experts said the process must have been sped up and expedited by ministry officials, because it was an unusually short time — 18 days — between the Supreme Court upholding Cheng’s death sentence on April 22 and the execution taking place.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Cheng’s lawyers headed to the ministry last night following the announcement to protest against what they called a “rushed decision,” as they were still preparing to file an extraordinary appeal against the death sentence.
Some political commentators have questioned whether there might be a political motive for carrying out the execution so soon, saying that Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) are trying to calm rising discontent regarding recent judicial decisions.
When speaking to the media yesterday afternoon, Luo said she did not know when Cheng would be executed.
Cheng reportedly told the police directly after his MRT stabbing rampage that he hoped he would be given the death sentence for his crimes and said he had been planning a mass murder since he was in fifth grade.
Cheng said he was under great pressure from his parents and often contemplated suicide, but he did not have the courage to kill himself.
“I had to murder people so I would be convicted for murder and given the death sentence. Only then would my miserable life end,” Cheng reportedly said.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS