Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) said yesterday the ministry would take gradual steps toward abolishing the death penalty, but denied reports saying it would be done by November next year.
Wang made the remarks at a press conference held by the ministry. She was accompanied by deputy minister Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘), recently nominated by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as the next state public prosecutor-general.
“Many people are against abolishing the death penalty because they are concerned about the effect it could have on crime rates,” Wang said.
“However, research obtained from many countries shows that abolishing the death penalty is not correlated with crime rates,” she said.
At present, 132 countries have banned or stopped practicing capital punishment, which shows that ending capital punishment is becoming an international trend, she said.
However, Wang denied reports that claimed the ministry would complete the abolition by November next year, saying she had not heard of such a date being discussed and that the ministry did not have a timetable for such a move.
Forty-four convicts are on death row in Taiwan, with no chance of appeal. No execution has been carried out in more than five years, however.
Abolishment of the death penalty has recently become a hot topic as celebrity Pai Ping-ping (白冰冰), whose daughter died at the hands of a brutal murderer, publicly endorsed capital punishment, saying she wanted to become a bailiff so she could shoot a convict on death row.
Pai’s daughter, Pai Hsiao-yen (白曉燕), was abducted on the morning of April 14, 1997. After 11 days of negotiations over a ransom, her body was found in a drainage ditch.
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