The Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office (士林地檢署) yesterday charged Huang Chi-feng (黃啟峰) with the murder and rape eight years ago of Wu Hsiao-hui (吳曉蕙), a teacher at Taipei's Hsinhu Elementary School (新湖國小).
The prosecutors' office demanded a sentence of 15 years in prison.
Shihlin Prosecutor Tsai Chung-yung's (蔡仲雍) indictment charges that the 23-year-old suspect -- who was 15 years old at the time of the crime -- had committed the crime with "extreme brutality" and that he had acted like an adult.
Such a crime is normally punishable with life in prison or death but, due to the regulations of the Criminal Code and the Law Governing the Disposition of Juvenile Cases (少年事件處理法) to protect juvenile criminals, pro-secutors had to ask for a 15-year jail term.
"Huang violated Article 226 and Article 271 of the Criminal Code. However, since he was younger than 18 when he committed the crime, he is exempt from a life sentence or the death penalty," Tsai stated in his indictment.
Article 271 of the Criminal Code states that a person who kills another shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life, or for not less than 10 years. It makes no distinction, unlike Anglo-American law, between murder and manslaughter.
Article 226 of the Criminal Code regulates, among other things, that if a rape results in the serious bodily harm or death of the victim, the offender shall be punished with imprisonment for life or for not less than seven years.
The 19-year-old Wang Yu-chuan (王鈺銓) -- who was 11 at the time of the murder -- is another suspect in the case who had been arrested with Huang on Aug. 7 this year. He is still being held in the Shihlin Detention House (士林看守所).
* The rape and murder of teacher Wu Hsiao-hui, who was also the daughter of Keelung Police Department Chief Wu Chen-chi, occurred on Oct. 15, 1994.
* The alleged murderer was 15 years old then and his alleged accomplice was only 11.
* The Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office is demanding a sentence of 15 years in prison.
The extent of his involvement in the case is being investigated by the Shihlin District Court's (士林地檢署) Juvenile Division.
The rape and murder of teacher Wu Hsiao-hui, who was also the daughter of the Keelung Police Department Chief Wu Chen-chi (吳振吉), occurred on Oct. 15, 1994, when Wu Hsiao-hui was washing her car in the school's garage.
The indictment states that Huang and Wang decided to rape Wu when they saw her alone.
They strangled Wu until she was unconscious, raped her and suffocated her by covering her face with wet sand and mud.
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