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 Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS