Lawyers urge that miniser hold off on Hsu's death order

Lawyers from the Judicial Reform Foundation yesterday urged Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) to postpone his approval for the execution of death-row inmate Hsu Tzu-chiang (徐自強) while they work on a fourth application for extraordinary appeal on behalf of Hsu.

"Hsu's third extraordinary appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court on July 10 which means he will be executed anytime after the minister approves the order," said Joseph Lin (林永頌), a member of Hsu's defense counsel and an executive member of the foundation.

At 2:30pm yesterday Hsu's mother and 14-year-old son arrived at the Ministry of Justice to submit their request to Chen. However, they were not greeted by any official from the ministry although their official request materials were accepted by the mail room.

According to Shirley Lin (林靜萍), executive-general of the foundation, State Public Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa (盧仁發) filed the third extraordinary appeal to the Supreme Court on behalf of Hsu on March 3 this year.

Hsu's conviction was handed down by the Supreme Court on April 27, 2000. The foundation had petitioned Lu to pursue an extraordinary appeal for Hsu four times. Lu finally approved the fifth petition to make the first extraordinary appeal in 2001 but that appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court on March 21 last year.

The foundation's petitions cited a Control Yuan investigation report released in January 2001 that concluded Hsu's conviction was flawed and unlawful. In the report, the Control Yuan also suggested Lu to make extraordinary appeals for Hsu.

Hsu was indicted for the Sept. 1, 1995 kidnapping and murder of Huang Chun-shu (黃春樹), a salesman, based on the testimony of his two alleged accomplices, Huang Chun-chi (黃春棋) and Chen Yi-lung (陳憶龍). Hsu turned himself in when he realized he was wanted, Hsu never confessed to either crime.

In handing down the verdict, the court said that Huang was kidnapped and the accomplices demanded NT$15 million in ransom. Huang was then killed on the same day in Hsichih, Taipei County, and the three accomplices failed to get away with the money.

In May 2000, Chen Yi-lung wrote a confession admitting that he had deliberately incriminated Hsu because he had a grudge against him and hoped to delay the trial.