Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday approved draft amendments to the Criminal Code that could see drunk drivers deemed to have caused fatalities with murderous intent sentenced to death.
During the weekly Cabinet meeting, Su approved planned changes to the code, which are to be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review.
A proposed addendum to Article 185, Clause 3 of the code says that people who have been convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, including those who have been granted probation, drive under the influence within five years of their conviction or receiving probation, resulting in a fatality, they shall be sentenced to life or a prison term of at least seven years.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Police Departmen
People who drive under the influence within five years of a conviction or receiving probation, resulting in serious injury, would be given a prison term of five to 12 years, it says.
Those who are deemed to have caused fatalities with the intent to murder shall be tried under Article 22, meaning that they would be sentenced to 10 years in prison, a life sentence or the death penalty.
Amendments have also been proposed to the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法) to bring the regulations for military personnel in line with those for civilians.
Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) cited a case in Taipei last year when a man surnamed Kuo (郭) drove after consuming alcohol and reportedly ran a series of red lights, killing a female scooter rider and hitting two others.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office pressed a charge of murder, citing dashboard camera footage showing that Kuo did not step off the accelerator at any time during the accident and that his actions were no different from a “terrorist attack,” Lo said.
The draft amendments came after stiffened administrative fines for driving under the influence were passed by the legislature on Tuesday.
A coalition of civil groups yesterday opposed subjecting drunk drivers who have repeatedly caused serious or fatal accidents to the death penalty or life imprisonment, saying that the harsher punishments could be counterproductive.
“It is unclear whether a grave criminal law supported by little evidence and research would truly prevent drunk driving, or merely produce more social problems, such as overcrowded prisons and preventing offenders from re-entering society,” it said in a joint statement.
The coalition included Covenants Watch, the Judicial Reform Foundation, the Taipei Bar Association, the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Taiwan Forever Association and the Taiwan Innocent Project.
Given that drunk driving involves complex social and cultural issues, related legislation requires careful and comprehensive research, it said.
Furthermore, it is a court’s job to determine whether a drunk driver who has caused a fatal accident did so with the intent to kill, it said.
Requiring drunk drivers to be treated the same as people who intentionally kill would upset existing criminal theories and practices, it added.
It would also breach the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stipulates that only those who had the intent to kill should be subject to the death penalty, it said.
A criminal law with proportional penalties backed by evidence would help establish Taiwan as a nation that complies with international human rights standards, it said.
Additional reporting by Ann Maxon
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the