President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that although reducing the number of state executions was desirable, more education and legal revisions would be required to make it a reality.
Ma made the remarks while receiving delegations from the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, the Anti-Death Penalty Asian Network and Amnesty International.
MINISTER OF JUSTICE
He said that when he served as minister of justice in 1993, he conducted the first-ever opinion poll on whether capital punishment should be abandoned.
He said he was “surprised” to learn that 72 percent of respondents opposed the abolition of the death penalty, while 88 percent of personnel in the criminal justice system were opposed.
However, when asked “can capital punishment deter major crimes,” less than half of the respondents believed it would, Ma said, describing these as “contradictory” views.
Ma said a Ministry of Justice survey held in February obtained similar results, with about 80 percent of respondents expressing opposition to the abolition of the death penalty.
STRICTER CONDITIONS
If longer prison terms were adopted or stricter conditions were imposed on life-term inmates seeking parole, however, 56 percent said “they would support the abolition of capital punishment.”
Ma said that while executions were still carried out during his term as justice minister, the number had since dropped considerably.
Referring to the “Hsichih trio” case — in which three men were convicted in 1991 of a double murder in Sijhih (汐止), Taipei County — Ma said the death sentences were not carried out during his term and that all three, who have professed their innocence, are still trying to clear their names.
At present, 29 people are on death row, Ma said.
The minister of justice, Wang Ching-feng (王清峰), is known for her promotion of human rights.
She has long advocated the abolition of capital punishment in Taiwan.
But Wang knows that only through legal revisions and public education would it be possible to promote the abolition of the death penalty and that even then, public consensus would be needed, Ma said.
DPP ADMINISTRATION
The Democratic Progressive Party government said in 2000 that it would abolish the death penalty, but the ministry later said it was unable to do so because a majority of Taiwanese still believed that capital punishment is the most effective means of deterring serious crime.
Given this, the ministry has since tried to limit the number of executions by filing extraordinary appeals to the Supreme Court or by delaying executions.
Ministry figures showed that the number of executions has dropped for years.
Thirty-two prisoners were executed in 1998, a number that shrank to 10 in 2001 and three each year between 2004 and 2006.
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