Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) yesterday criticized a Supreme Court ruling in which the judges cited the high grades convicted killer Tseng Chih-chung (曾智忠) received at school when commuting his death sentence to life in prison.
In Wednesday’s ruling, the Supreme Court turned down an appeal by prosecutors for Tseng to receive the death penalty and upheld a decision by the Taiwan High Court’s Hualien Branch in February to sentence him to life in prison, the same sentence his girlfriend, Tsai Ching-ching (蔡京京), received.
The couple was convicted of the 2012 murder of Tsai’s mother, Chen Yi (陳誼), due to a dispute over money, in which the couple killed Chen, put her body in a plastic bag and dumped it into the sea off the coast of Hualien County.
In the first and second rulings on the case, judges in lower courts handed Tseng the death sentence on account of his contrived attitude in court and trying to evade guilt by framing the victim’s husband.
Prosecutors found that Tseng and Tsai planned to get married, but they did not have jobs or any income, so they asked for financial assistance from Tsai’s mother.
The couple plotted the murder after Tsai’s mother scolded them for not trying to earn a living and rejected their request for NT$1 million, according to the prosecutors who conducted the investigation.
After appeals were lodged by the defense team following the first and second rulings, the case was sent to the High Court for a retrial last year.
Wednesday’s ruling concurred with the cited reasons of the High Court decision, which stated that Tseng had performed well in high school and university with good academic achievements and good behavior, and also earned merit citations when serving his compulsory military service, and therefore “there remains the likelihood of his rehabilitation.”
The judges also cited the nation’s adoption of the the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2009 as a reason for commuting the death penalty.
When asked about the judgement yesterday, Luo said: “It sounds a bit strange. Does it mean that from now on people who perform well in school can do anything they want? It seems to be the logic behind the ruling.”
Luo said she was not at liberty to discuss legal cases under judicial consideration, but added: “Is it justified after this ruling that society makes its own judgement?”
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