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Murderers won't receive amnesty: justice ministry

Murderers and those who have been convicted of serious corruption will not be included in the proposed presidential amnesty plan, Vice Minister of Justice Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said at a press conference yesterday.

Because Taiwan's 25 prisoners on death row have all been convicted of murder, their death sentences would not change under the proposal.

However, more than 30,000 criminals serving sentences of one year or less would be eligible to have their sentences reduced. under the plan.

The last time the nation saw presidential pardons on a large scale was in 1991 under former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).

Lee Chin-yung said that criminals who had their sentences reduced in the 1991 amnesty had a recidivism rate of 16.21 percent from 1991 to 2000, compared to a rate of 46.9 percent of all criminals released on parole from 1997 to last year.

Under the amnesty, the justice ministry would submit a plan to the Cabinet next week that would grant reduced sentences to prisoners, then send the proposal to the legislature for approval.

Under the ministry's original amnesty plan, the sentences of prisoners on death row could have been commuted to life sentences and the sentences of criminals serving life sentences could have been reduced to 20 years.

However, under the revised plan, no prisoners on death row would be qualified to receive reduced sentences.

Criminals convicted of violent crimes, serious financial crimes or crimes added to the Criminal Code after 1991 would also not be eligible for reduced sentences, Lee Chin-yung said.
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