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Foundation appealing to justices on behalf of Hsu

The Judicial Reform Foundation yesterday said that it will apply for an interpretation of the Constitution which could lead to the acquittal of death-row inmate Hsu Tzu-chiang (徐自強).

There is a possibility that Hsu's case could be retried under the new Code of Criminal Proceedure, which was amended last year to disallow testimony by alleged accomplices against an accused, if the Constitution were amended to state that the code is retroactive.

Accomplice trap

"Hsu's conviction was handed down based on the testimony of his two alleged accomplices," said Joseph Lin (林永頌), a member of Hsu's defense counsel and an executive member of the foundation. "This is unacceptable and will be the main argument in our application to the Council of Grand Justices."

Hsu's third extraordinary appeal, which was filed by State Public Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa (盧仁發) on March 3, was just rejected by the Supreme Court on July 10, which means that he may be executed any time after Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) approves the order.

Hsu's conviction

His conviction was handed down by the Supreme Court on April 27, 2000. The foundation had petitioned Lu to pursue an extraordinary appeal for Hsu for 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 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).

No confession given

Hsu turned himself in when he realized that he was wanted but he never confessed to and of the crime for which he was accused.

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.
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