Notorious murderer Chen Chin-hsing (
Since a recent campaign to reopen the case of the Hsichih trio -- believed seriously flawed by human rights violations during the investigation -- the legal community has been debating the validity of the Act for the Control and Punishment of Banditry (懲治盜匪條例), commonly known as the "bandit law" under which the Hsichih trio members Su Chien-ho (
Despite the continuing legal wrangles, however, the Ministry of Justice appears set to use the law to execute Chen, who has been on death row for a series of killings, robberies, and rapes in 1997. Chen's case, the ministry argues, is subject to the same law.
Chen is perhaps best known for the 1997 kidnapping and murder of popular TV entertainer and personality Pai Ping-ping's (白冰冰) 17-year-old daughter Pai Hsiao-yen (白曉燕), and his final standoff later that year with police in the home of the South African military attache.
Having obtained detailed records from the legislature on the process by which the act was passed, the MOJ now looks set to go ahead with the execution.
The Prosecutors' Office for the Supreme Court last week started the final phase of the legal process for requesting an execution: examining previous rulings against Chen and requesting that Minister of Justice Yeh Chin-fong (葉金鳳) sign an execution order.
When questioned about the likelihood of Chen's immediate execution, Yeh said yesterday she has yet to receive the relevant documents and her decision is still pending. But the minister said that the bandit law applies to Chen's case.
Yeh's statement is at odds with statements made by a majority of lawyers and legal scholars. And as the legal debates continue, Yeh has yet to order executions for nine people convicted under the law, including the Hsichih trio.
Chen's execution has been a thorny issue for the MOJ, given the public outrage over Chen's crimes and the controversy surrounding the law.
In August, the Council of Grand Justices, the island's judicial review authority, rejected an appeal for a reinterpretation of the validity of the bandit law, referring disputes over the validity to the legislature.
When the bandit law was promulgated in 1944, it had a "sunset clause" attached which abolished the law after one year unless the legislative renewed it.
Arguably, this was not done in time in 1945 and the law therefore lapsed.
Nevertheless, the legislature -- some claim unconstitutionally -- extended the law annually over the 13 years that followed and finally deleted the sunset clause in 1957, allowing the law to stand in perpetuity.
Legal scholars and lawyers, however, say that on four occasions before 1957, the legislature failed to extend the law as required. They have urged the government to declare the law invalid.
The MOJ requested documents from the legislature to verify the law-making process concerning the act.
Chou Wan-lai (
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