Cheng: On my first day in office, three yellow packs were sent to me and my subordinate told me, "You had better open them by yourself." I opened them and saw legal papers and unsigned execution orders of three death row inmates. I told myself, "I'm an abolitionist and now I have to order these executions. I really can't do it."
I spent the whole day looking through the papers and, judging from the social values of Taiwan society then, these were really unforgivable savages. But I was thinking about why they had turned savage. Isn't the state also responsible for their acts?
I put the packs aside and allowed myself another two days to think more about it. At the end of the day, I still had to sign it, but I insisted not until I made sure the cases had no chance of special appeal or retrial.
I had examined the Hsichih Trio case and felt the convictions doubtful when I was a grand justice, so I didn't sign execution orders for the three defendants during my term as justice minister.
I thought I wouldn't authorize the execution as long as there was any doubt about a defendant's conviction.
TT: Given your abolitionist stance, human rights groups had expected much of you when you took office as justice minister. But they were disappointed that you eventually authorized several executions.
Cheng: I was a member of the Cabinet and in Taiwan society then there was wide support for the retribution argument and the idea of severe punishment under strict laws prevails even to this day.
The law doesn't prohibit the death penalty and when judges handed it down I had no option but to sign the order.
I was just an enforcer. But inside, I'm always concerned about the dignity of life and the international trend to abolish the death penalty, hoping one day we can do away with it.
TT: What's your evaluation of the abolition plan proposed by Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南)?
Cheng: To be honest, I'm reserved about his announcement to abolish the death penalty in three years, even though I am committed to the abolition of capital punishment myself.
Abolishing the death penalty involves such a wide range of issues -- feelings of the public, social, economic, and political environments -- that it is difficult to set a specific timetable.
But the first step I think we should take is legal education, to educate the public about why we need to abolish the death penalty. We hope that Taiwan's economic and political situation will become stable in a period of five to 10 years and that capital punishment will be abolished. It will take 10 to 20 years.
Public opinion is very unreliable because you can't expect everyone to give a professional view on a topic they are not familiar with. The judgements are solely based on personal feelings and instinct and not well thought through.
We don't necessarily have to wait until a majority of the public support abolition because it'll take 100 years or more. But I must say we've done far too little to promote the goal.
In my position as a grand justice, justice minister and now vice president of the Judicial Yuan, I cannot just say "Alright let's abolish the death penalty now," which is too sensitive. But I do what I can to promote the idea. It might not be today or tomorrow, but I believe someday we will definitely achieve the goal.
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