The death penalty conforms with the Constitution, but should only be applied in “exceptional” cases, the Constitutional Court said yesterday.
The judgement was issued in response to a petition by prisoners on death row who said that capital punishment was unconstitutional.
“The death penalty is a capital punishment and its scope of application should still be limited to special and exceptional circumstances,” Chief Justice Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) said during a lengthy readout of the court’s decision.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
While the right to life is protected by the Constitution, “such protection is not absolute,” the court said in a statement.
“The court emphasized that because the death penalty is the most severe punishment and irreversible in nature, its application and procedural safeguards — from investigation to execution — should be reviewed under strict scrutiny,” it said in reference to the crime of murder.
However, “the judgement did not address the constitutionality of the death penalty in general or when imposed for other offenses,” such as treason or drug-related offenses, it said.
Imposing the death sentence is “prohibited” for “defendants with mental conditions, even if their mental conditions did not influence their offense in the cases in question,” the statement said.
Additionally, people on death row “should not be executed if they have a mental condition to an extent that impedes their competency for execution,” it said.
Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers yesterday affirmed the legality of capital punishment in the Criminal Code, adding that they would respect the court’s decision.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers criticized the ruling, saying “it effectively abolished capital punishment in Taiwan.”
The court’s decision runs contrary to the expectations of the majority of Taiwanese, they said.
Human rights advocates and groups opposed to capital punishment expressed disappointment with the Constitutional Court’s judgement, saying that government agencies had not pushed for a genuine decision on the issue.
“We shall keep up the fight. We hope that some day Taiwan will no longer have the death penalty,” they said in a statement.
“The Constitutional Court must be resolute in defending human rights by declaring the death penalty to be unconstitutional,” they said. “Then we can lead Taiwanese society forward to rise above hatred and using state violence as a deterrent.”
“It is time to break the cycle of taking lives and hatred to allow society to start the healing process,” the groups said. “It is unfortunate that the court did not do so.”
Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty director Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) said that the government has not taken a firm stance on capital punishment because of divided public opinion on the issue.
However, DPP members are mainly in favor of abolishment, but they did not make an unequivocal statement to clarify their stance, Lin said.
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS: Trump and Xi respect each other, are in a unique position to do something great, and they want to do that together, the US envoy to China said The administration of US President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “we don’t want any coercion, but we want [the Taiwan dispute] resolved peacefully,” US ambassador to China David Perdue said in a TV interview on Thursday. Trump “has said very clearly, we are not changing the ‘one China’ policy, we are going to adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques and the ‘six assurances’ that were done under [former US president Ronald] Reagan,” Perdue told Joe Kernen, cohost of CNBC’s Squawk Box. The act, the Three Joint Communiques and the “six assurances” are guidelines for Washington
DEEPENING TIES: The two are boosting cooperation in response to China’s coercive actions and have signed MOUs on search-and-rescue and anti-smuggling efforts Taiwan and Japan are moving to normalize joint coast guard training and considering the inclusion of other allies, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Both nations’ coast guards in June sent vessels to the seas south of the Sakishima Islands to conduct joint training, the report said, adding that it was the second joint maritime training exercise since the nations severed formal diplomatic ties in September 1972. Japan dispatched the Nagoya Coast Guard’s Mizuho, a 134m, 6,000-tonne patrol vessel which can carry a helicopter, while the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent the 126m, 4,000-tonne Yunlin, one of its largest vessels, the report
RSS