Death penalty makes a return to the public eye

KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) strongly disagrees with the idea of abolishing the death penalty.

"It is not a good thing to do at this moment. It's not fair for the victim's family when there is no death penalty," Chen said. "I still believe that a criminal should pay for what he does."

Chen said that he would agree to abolish the death penalty only under one circumstance.

"If there is a `real' life sentence, I will vote `yes' to the amendment," Chen said. "A `real' life sentence means a life sentence without a chance of amnesty.

According to Chen, if the life sentence without amnesty replaces the death penalty, there could be another controversy.

"Would it be fair to ask innocent people to pay taxes to support the criminals while they are in jail? That will become another big problem for us," he said.

Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊), a lawyer and PFP candidate for the Taipei City Council, supports the ministry's idea of prolonging imprisonment of a definite period but rejected the idea of entirely abolishing the death penalty.

She said that "a useful warning" is a lot more important than the "actual punishment."

"Abolishing capital punishment has been a controversial issue for the past ten years," she said.

"Personally, I still believe it is necessary to keep death penalty as a punishment for the criminals who deserve it.

"But I think that authorities should be more careful and critical when they are reviewing or approving a death penalty case because it is a weighty decision when the state considers taking someone's life,"Huang said.