The Judicial Yuan yesterday denied media reports that the Council of Grand Justices would likely reject requests for a constitutional interpretation on the cases of 40 death row prisoners on procedural grounds.
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said it would not execute anyone on death row for whom the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) had filed for an interpretation and the ministry would await the results of the grand justices’ decision.
The announcement came after four death row prisoners — Chang Wen-wei (張文蔚), Ko Shih-ming (柯世銘), Chang Wei-long (張慰龍) and Hong Chen-yao (洪晨耀) — were executed at three different prisons at 7:30pm on Friday.
The TAEDP had said it filed two kinds of applications with the Council of Grand Justices. The first was on 14 death row prisoners who had no lawyers to represent them during their final hearings, claiming that the verdicts were therefore unconstitutional. The second was that the Supreme Court had not conducted debates during hearings before delivering the death sentence, which it claimed was also unconstitutional.
Media reports said yesterday that because human rights groups had already filed for two constitutional interpretations on the death penalty cases and had had both rejected, the Council of Grand Justices was likely to reject the latest applications as they do not review cases unless new evidence comes to light. The cases were therefore likely to be turned down on procedural grounds, the reports added.
Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定) said yesterday that the Council of Grand Justices had received the applications, adding that he would not comment on media speculation.
Meanwhile, an MOJ official, who wished to remain anonymous, said the ministry had received letters from three death row prisoners — Kuan Chung-yan (管鍾演), Wang Kuo-hua (王國華) and Cheng Wu-sung (鄭武松) — asking that the ministry not delay their executions because waiting to die was “torture.”
Kuan headed a robbery and murder group responsible for seven murders, Wang robbed and sexually assaulted several young women after getting to know them on the Internet and killed a young woman by putting her and her sister into a bag and throwing it into a river, while Cheng murdered his ex-wife and her boss because he thought they were having an affair, according to the court rulings in their cases.
Meanwhile, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday acknowledged the EU’s condemnation of Friday’s executions, but said the executions were necessary to live up to the public’s expectations of the judiciary.
“About 70 percent of respondents in several [government] surveys support the retention of the death penalty,” Wu told reporters. “Carrying out capital punishment is part of social justice and it is legal.”
Wu was responding to Catherine Ashton, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security, who issued a statement on Saturday condemning the executions.
“The European Union urges the government of Taiwan immediately to resume the de facto moratorium on the death penalty, pending legal abolition, which should include all cases still on death row in Taiwan,” the statement said. “The European Union further urges the government of Taiwan to resume a policy toward eventual abolition of the death penalty, in line with the global trend toward universal abolition.”
Until Friday, the ministry had not approved an execution since December 2005.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) told the Taipei Times that it was “normal” for the EU to express concern about executions, but it would not affect Taipei’s chances of being granted visa-waiver privileges by the end of the year.
“Abolition of the death penalty is the government’s ultimate goal, but the public still cannot reach a consensus on the issue. The ministry has explained the situation to member states of the EU on numerous occasions and they have all responded with understanding.”
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