The Supreme Court yesterday upheld an appeal by prosecutors and ordered the Taiwan High Court to rehear the Hsichih Trio murder case.
The Supreme Court said a High Court verdict delivered in January was reached without due regard for principles of evidence and sound reasoning.
"Judges should try to confirm suspects' statements with evidence presented by prosecutors. The Taiwan High Court's verdict violates this rule so the [Supreme] Court has decided to uphold the prosecutors' appeal and ask the high court to rehear the case," said Chang Hsin-hsiung (張信雄), the presiding judge of the Supreme Court's Seventh Criminal Division.
Chang's decision was based on Article 155 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法), which says, "A court is free to determine the probative force of the evidence. Evidence given by an incompetent witness, having not been lawfully investigated, obviously contrary to reason or inconsistent with established facts shall not form the basis of a decision."
Defense Counsel Su Yiu-chen (
"Another long period of torture for my clients is about to begin," he said. "But my colleagues and I will keep fighting for their innocence."
The three men's case has been made famous by human rights activists who allege they made false confessions under torture.
Following a rare retrial, the High Court ordered the case be withdrawn last January when it deemed that the men were innocent because evidence -- including fingerprints, hair samples and the knife -- didn't tie them to the murder.
The families of the dead victims later appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.
Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bing-lang (劉秉郎) and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳) were convicted in March, 1991 of the murders of Wu Ming-han (吳銘漢) and his wife Yeh Ying-lan (葉盈蘭).
Another man, Wang Wen-hsiao (王文孝), was executed for the robbery and murder. Before his execution, Wang told police that the three men, all in their late teens at the time, helped him kill the couple, who died of multiple stab wounds.
The three men admitted assisting Wang but later said they were innocent and falsely confessed after being tortured by police.
Wang was executed on Jan. 11, 1992, under military law after confessing and pleading guilty to the murder.
Prosecutors charged the trio with murder on Oct. 4, 1991.
Su, Liu and Chuang were sentenced to death after the first trial at the Shihlin District Court on Feb. 18, 1992.
After three requests for extraordinary appeals -- all of which failed to sway the courts to change the verdict from guilty to not guilty -- defense counsel Su Yiu-chen also filed an appeal to the Supreme Court on Aug. 21, 1998.
On Sept. 23, 1999, the Supreme Court accepted the appeal and asked the Taiwan High Court to prepare to hold rehearings and to have a retrial.
In Taiwan High Court Judge Yeh Teng-juei's (葉騰瑞) verdict, weaknesses in the evidence, including an unclear forensic report and a missing knife, against the trio were the main reason for the overturning the convictions.
On March 6, on behalf of the families of the victims, the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the overturning of the trio's convictions.
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