Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (
The absolute death penalty carries with it no recourse to the appeal courts or option to commute to a lighter sentence.
The 71-year-old Weng, a grand justice since 1972, told the second-day legislative interpellation for the 15 nominees for the Council of Grand Justices that a gradual withdrawal of the death penalty was preferable because some sections of society lacked the maturity to discuss the matter properly.
Comparing the situation to Europe, where the Court of Human Rights has already annulled capital punishment, Weng said that conditions and the climate of opinion in Taiwan were not ripe for adopting a similar measure.
"Men are not gods and therefore they make mistakes," Weng said. "Abolition of the death penalty is necessary to mend the problem that execution will deprive one of the chance to repent one's misconduct."
The Judicial Yuan leader said that the absolute death penalty should be replaced by life imprisonment or by an extended sentence.
Judicial Yuan Vice President Cheng Chung-mo (
"The abolition [of the death penalty] is a common goal of nationals looking to make Taiwan a country held in high regard by international society," Cheng said.
When asked about the effectiveness of capital punishment as a deterrent, Cheng said that the government should educate people, but not punish them too harshly when they break the rules.
In Taiwan, the death penalty is carried out by lethal injection or firing squad.
As part of the questioning of the 15 justice nominees, TSU Legislator Lo Chih-ming (
"Based on the idea that marriage is an individual human right, legislation for same-sex union should be advanced when it does not conflict with public values nor impact too heavily on society," Weng said.
Cheng said any dispute over the issue should be resolved by enhancing the values of human dignity and the family in the Constitution.
"The two notions must be added to the Constitution," Cheng said.
Meanwhile, as the nominee process entered its second day, the Democratic Progressive Party legislative leader urged his Chinese National Party (KMT) counterparts to stop publishing surveys that criticize nominees named by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
"The KMT should stop releasing unconvincing opinion polls that have only 20-percent feedback," Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
Chen was referring to two polls unveiled by the KMT caucus on Monday and yesterday.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching