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Prosecutors seek life term for killer of NTU professor

Prosecutors demanded yesterday life imprisonment for a former prisoner who killed a professor of National Taiwan University (NTU) without provocation shortly after being released under a commutation program.

Prosecutors said that Yang Chen-tang (楊振堂), a convicted drug addict who had been sentenced to jail until Oct. 12 this year but was released on July 16 under a commutation program, showed no remorse after killing Hsieh Huann-ju (謝煥儒), an associate professor of plant pathology.

On July 23, Yang was walking on a bicycle lane near the embankment of a riverside park when he saw Hsieh riding a bicycle.

He attacked the diminutive professor while under the influence of drugs and kicked him for nearly three minutes after the latter had slumped to the ground.

Hsieh, a 55-year-old expert in forest diseases, plant diseases, bacteria classification, ecology and biological diversity, sustained head injuries.

He was rushed to the hospital but doctors failed to resuscitate him due to serious brain injuries.

Hsieh's case sparked a debate over whether the commutation program, initiated by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to mark the 20th anniversary of the lifting of martial law in Taiwan, was being implemented in a rash manner.

Beneficiaries of the statute were prisoners convicted on charges of illegal drug possession or sale, burglary, theft, fraud and homicide.

Early last month, NTU said it would establish a scholarship in memory of Hsieh.

NTU president Lee Si-chen (李嗣涔) said the school asked Hsieh's wife Chang Mei-ying (張美瑛) not to use donations she receceived to establish a scholarship because the professor's three children would need the money to finish their education.
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