Six convicts on death row were executed yesterday, the Ministry of Justice announced last night.
The executions were carried out a day after Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) signed orders giving the final go-ahead to carry out the death sentences given to the six individuals.
Tseng Si-ru (曾思儒) and Hung Ming-tsung (洪明聰) were executed in Taipei Prison; Chen Chin-huo (陳金火) and Kwang Teh-chiang (廣德強) in Greater Taichung Prison; Huang Hsien-cheng (黃賢正) in Greater Tainan Prison; and Tai Te-ying (戴德穎) in Greater Kaohsiung Prison, Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) told a press conference.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Chen Shou-huang said the six who were executed had murdered women or children using very cruel methods, including setting fire to a home that killed innocent lives.
Chen Chin-huo and Kwang were sentenced to death for killing a female insurance agent and chopping up and eating parts of her body in 2004 in then-Taichung County.
Tseng Si-ru, a former Taipei County senior-high school teacher, was convicted of killing a female colleague after she caught him burgling her home in 2002.
Hung set fire to the home of in-laws, killing his brother-in-law and his brother-in-law’s three children in 2003 in then-Taipei County.
Tai killed his girlfriend’s father by stabbing him 26 times and severely wounded his girlfriend’s mother in 2006 in Kaohsiung.
Huang, who served a prison term for killing his ex-wife, murdered two other men five days after he was released on parole in 2005.
According to the ministry, Chen Chin-huo, Tai and Tseng Si-ru had signed documents donating their organs, but Tai was a hepatitis B carrier and Tseng Si-ru retracted his promise at the last minute. Only Chen Chin-huo’s organs were used.
Tseng Yung-fu, who took office in 2010, resumed capital punishment in Taiwan after a moratorium of more than four years. Since then, the minister has signed nine execution orders, not including the orders for the latest six. With yesterday’s executions, the number of death row inmates now stands at 55, according to the ministry.
Chen Shou-huang said there are still a number of countries that carry out capital punishment, including Japan and most Asian countries.
Various surveys over the years also show support for the death penalty in Taiwan. In a survey by the ministry released in July, 76.7 percent of respondents supported the death penalty.
Late last night, members of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty held a demonstration in front of the ministry to protest the executions.
They lit up and placed six candles representing the six prisoners who were executed on a piece of black cloth and waved a white banner that read: “Capital punishment has not achieved the effect of stopping crime.”
Capital punishment is the cheapest method, but also the least effective, in stopping crime, alliance executive director Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) said.
If the government really wanted to put a stop to crime, it should not look to capital punishment as the cure; instead, it should strive to quickly and efficiently solve crimes and mete out appropriate punishments, Lin said.
Only then would there be an effective deterrent to crime, Lin said.
Additional reporting by CNA and staff writer
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS