The media recently has been full of reports that the police have finally solved the mystery of who murdered of Wu Hsiao-hui (
Police were able to clear up the Wu case because criminal investigators collected adequate evidence, including one suspect's DNA samples and a palm print, at the crime scene. Since the evidence was well-preserved, police were able to arrest the suspects after matching the scientific evidence eight years later.
A big difference between the Wu case and many controversial cases in the past is that police were able to arrest the suspects and charge them simply based on scientific evidence, and that confessions from the suspects were absolutely unnecessary. Police in Taiwan have a bad habit of being preoccupied solely with getting suspects' confessions while ignoring scientific evidence at crime scenes. From Wu's case, however, we know that whether a suspect has confessed to his or her crime is not important.
This year, both the Judicial Yuan and the Judicial Reform Foundation have actively pushed for amendments to the rules of evidence detailed in the Criminal Procedure Law (刑事訴訟法) to have a defendant's confession to police or prosecutors rendered inadmissible. If they succeed, torture, threats or gimmicks should all be eliminated from the criminal investigation process. The reformers hope that the amendment will be passed by the Legislative Yuan this year.
Wu's case has highlighted another problem, as the public questions whether the police made a special effort to preserve the evidence because the victim was the daughter of a local police chief. There have been many cases in the past in which important pieces of evidence have been damaged or even lost. This is why the reform foundation has in recent years promoted a scientific approach to criminal investigations. But the police still use traditional investigative methods. Their scientific investigation skills are manifestly inadequate. Forensic examiners are employed solely at city and county police headquarters. Once a major crime occurs, local police are unable to undertake a thorough collection of evidence without the help of the Criminal Investigation Bureau (刑事警察局), under the Ministry of the Interior, or the Investigation Bureau (調查局), under the Ministry of Justice. Due to police's inadequate understanding of crime-scene preservation, however, many crime scenes are disturbed before forensic examiners arrive.
In addition, Wu's case has highlighted law-enforcement officers' lack of understanding of those who are mentally handicapped, as well as of disadvantaged groups. After the murder, in October 1994, police arrested a mentally handicapped man, treating him as the prime suspect on the basis of an alleged confession without considering his congenital weakness and ability to understand the case. Later, he was released because his palm print and DNA samples did not match those from the crime scene. There have been many similar cases, proving that police often clear up cases on the basis of confessions. This may easily lead to miscarriages of justice.
Law-enforcement officers can effectively maintain social order only if the government provides them with the necessary equipment to conduct criminal investigations and training for the handling of crime scenes.
Chan Shun-kuei is a lawyer at the Judicial Reform Foundation; Chen Hsiu-hsuan is a volunteer at the foundation.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
On May 13, the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to Article 6 of the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of nuclear reactors from 40 to 60 years, thereby providing a legal basis for the extension or reactivation of nuclear power plants. On May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators used their numerical advantage to pass the TPP caucus’ proposal for a public referendum that would determine whether the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant should resume operations, provided it is deemed safe by the authorities. The Central Election Commission (CEC) has
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
RSS