The Taiwan High Court’s Kaohsiung branch yesterday acquitted a man who served nearly nine years in prison for murder, following an appeal filed on his behalf by the Taiwan Association for Innocence.
Judges acquitted Lin Chin-kui (林金貴), 41, of murder charges in the 2007 shooting death of a taxi driver surnamed Wang (王) in Kaohsiung’s Fengshan District (鳳山), citing insufficient evidence.
Lin served nearly nine years of a life term handed to him by the Supreme Court in 2010.
Yesterday’s decision was not final and prosecutors can still appeal.
Association members campaigned on Lin’s behalf after identifying questionable evidence and other inconsistencies in the case.
The association filed the case’s third appeal in April last year, after Lin’s sister found a photograph of Lin with short hair that was taken shortly before the murder. Eyewitnesses and video evidence showed a suspect at the scene with long hair.
After reviewing the new evidence, the High Court approved a retrial and ordered Lin’s release from prison pending a new verdict.
Upon hearing yesterday’s verdict, Lin broke down in tears.
Lin’s lawyer, association chairman Yeh Chien-ting (葉建廷), said that the case had the most obvious flaws in suspect identification among all of the cases the group has taken up.
“We hope the justice system acknowledges that flaws in suspect identification were a the major reason for the wrongful conviction,” Yeh said.
Lin’s sister also shed tears when the ruling was announced, and later told reporters: “Now my heart can rest. We hope that after finding my brother innocent, there will no longer be such wrongful convictions. In these cases, family members suffer tremendous pain.”
Wang in May 2007 was shot with a handgun at close range. A street surveillance camera captured a blurred image of a man with long hair running from the scene and investigators found two witnesses who claimed to have seen the suspect’s face.
A masseuse in the area and two witnesses thought a sketch of the suspect resembled Lin. The guilty verdict was mainly based on the identification by the three people.
Lin maintained his innocence and passed a polygraph test administered during the investigation.
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