Legal reform advocates yesterday urged legislators to pass laws that would help people who were wrongfully imprisoned be reintegrated into society.
The justice system needs to address flaws in court prosecution procedures and deficiencies in the appeal process, Taiwan Association for Innocence (TAFI) director Lo Shih-hsiang (羅士翔) said.
There must also be more complete programs for redress and compensation in cases that have led to miscarriages of justice, Lo added.
“The current law mainly provides for financial compensation based on the number of days imprisoned, which does not take into account the mental stress and psychological damage they suffer,” Lo said.
The association chose yesterday to address the issue, because it was the fifth anniversary of Chen Lung-chi’s (陳龍綺) exoneration.
Chen was in March 2009 accused of sexual assault on two women, but a retrial overturned his conviction based on DNA evidence.
Chen was released in March 26, 2014, after serving more than four years in prison.
At the event yesterday, Chen called for fewer restrictions on retrials and complete participation in the trial process.
“We need to reform the law so that innocent people can get retrials. They should not depend on luck to have their case handled by a good judge, who can hear the appeal and call for a retrial,” Chen said. “I believe there are many others who are innocent, but are serving prison time on wrongful convictions.”
TAFI and wrongfully convicted people asked for legislators to approve the Judicial Yuan’s draft bill, which would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) and the Compensation for Wrongful Detentions and Executions Act (刑事補償法).
Su Ping-kun (蘇炳坤), whose case lasted more than 32 years, of which he spent 16 years in prison, thanked one prosecutor who helped him file extraordinary appeals for a retrial, but to no avail.
“The past three decades were very painful for me. After I went to prison, everything I had was gone: my family, my adult years, my business... How can they replace all these great losses? If they had exonerated me earlier, maybe I could have started my business, but now I cannot,” said Su, who is now 70 years old.
Su was finally granted a retrial after receiving a presidential pardon and was last year cleared of robbery and attempted murder charges.
Su’s defense team showed that he was not present at the scene of the robbery in 1986, and that he was tortured when questioned by police.
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