President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said that although some other nations have replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment without parole, Taiwan is not thinking of following suit.
Ma was responding to a question on the death penalty during a news conference held to address the release of the second national report on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole has caused many problems for nations around the world, Ma said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
For example, the public might find it hard to accept the idea of a nation providing lifelong support for people convicted of serious crimes, he said, adding that prison population management can be another problem.
In addition, putting criminals in prison for the rest of their lives is no less harmful to their human rights than executing them, Ma said.
Based on these reasons, the Ministry of Justice is not considering replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment without parole, he said.
The government’s current policy is to keep the death penalty, but use it judiciously, he added.
Over the past 20 years, Taiwan has abolished all laws that prescribed the death sentence as the sole penalty and has been reviewing those laws that maintain it as an optional punishment, Ma said.
Judges and prosecutors have also been very cautious in their handling of cases in which the death penalty is applicable, he said.
As a result, the number of people sentenced to death has dropped to six per year on average from a high of 18 per year in the past, Ma said.
Taiwanese cannot accept the idea of removing the death penalty from the law books, the president said, adding that abolition of capital punishment is not a global trend.
Although the UN has adopted several resolutions calling on nations that maintain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on its use, the nations that retain capital punishment still account for 60 percent of the world’s population, Ma said.
Meanwhile, in response to media requests for comment on renewed calls for former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to be pardoned, Ma said that would not be feasible at the moment because there are still ongoing criminal cases involving Chen.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
A British man was arrested for attempting to smuggle 14.37kg of marijuana into Taiwan through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei Customs said late yesterday. The man, who arrived from Bangkok at 9pm on Friday, was asked by customs officers to open his luggage during a random inspection, Taipei Customs said in a news release. The passenger, whose identity was not disclosed, refused to open his suitcase and tried to flee the restricted area. He was eventually subdued by three customs officials and an Aviation Police Bureau officer. A later search of his checked luggage uncovered 14.37kg of marijuana buds. The case was handed over
RSS