US forensic expert Henry Lee (李昌鈺) testified in the High Court for a highly controversial double murder case yesterday, making a statement in favor of the three defendants in the case.
Lee was invited by Hsu Wen-ping (許文彬), lead defense lawyer for Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bing-lang (劉秉郎) and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳) -- known as the "Hsichih Trio" -- to appear as an expert witness after Lee submitted a paper in September 2001 on his examination into the evidence regarding the double murder case.
In that report, Lee questioned a coroner's report saying that there were two murderers who used three different types of weapons in the 1991 case, which allegedly involved robbery, murder and rape.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
Hsu said that because the paper written by Lee could not be used as evidence, he decided to invite Lee to appear in court as an expert witness.
Lee told the court yesterday that although he was unable to return to the original site of the murder, he had thoroughly reviewed all the photographs and videotapes made by forensic experts at the time.
The court yesterday watched a Powerpoint presentation of photographs of the murder site, along with Lee's notes.
Wang Wen-hsiao (王文孝), who was serving in the marines at the time of the murders and whose fingerprints were found at the site, was executed on Jan. 11, 1992, under Military Law (軍法) after confessing and pleading guilty to the murder of a couple in Hsichih, Taipei County, in 1991.
Wang told investigators his three friends, Su, Liu and Chuang were also involved in the murder.
"By examining those photographs, I would say that it is possible that the murder was committed by a single person," Lee told the court yesterday.
He said he thought the victim Wu and his wife Yeh were likely murdered as they slept in bed.
"I think Wu was cut on the bed, then stood up next to a cabinet, with one of his hands on top of it and the other raised to resist the attack. He was cut many times until he eventually fell to the floor," Lee said. "Yeh was cut and then fell to the floor. The couple were hacked to death on the floor and they likely lost consciousness during the attack."
He said they suffered a total of 79 stab wounds, 56 of them on their heads.
"The murderer likely suffered from psychological problems or was a drug user. Normal people would not be so cruel," he added.
He said the murder site was so small that it was hard to imagine it could have contained four murderers and the two victims.
"In the pictures, we clearly saw a white bed sheet that was completely stained in blood. If there had been more than one suspect in the room, he would likely have stood in front of the bed sheet and his body would have blocked the blood from hitting the sheet, leaving an unstained part of the sheet," Lee said.
In addition, he said, there were only a few bloody shoe prints on the floor inside and outside the room, indicating that there could not have been many people in the house.
"In the pictures of the restroom, there is not any sign that a number of people crowded into the room in order to clean the bloody stains from their bodies," he said.
Lee added that he was sure the victim Yeh was not raped by suspects before or after she was murdered, pointing out a photograph that indicated that Yeh's genitalia had not bled. Neither was any semen found in the room, he added.
Lee dismissed prosecutorial indictments, which said Yeh was raped by Su and the other three suspects and which resulted in the three being sentenced to death for robbery, murder and rape.
Lee said that "unless we are able to examine the kitchen knife, which was alleged to have been used in the murder and was seized by the court, along with the marks on the victims' skulls, we cannot be sure that the kitchen knife was used in the murder as the prosecutors and the courts have stated."
After remaining on death row for more than 11 years, the trio were freed in 2003 when the High Court overturned their convictions.
But in the same year the Supreme Court ruled that the High Court should re-examine the case.
Additional reporting by CNA
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