A death row inmate was executed on Wednesday, less than a year after he was convicted of killing six people by setting fire to his home.
Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said that he signed the order and the death sentence was carried out on Wednesday afternoon in New Taipei City.
The Supreme Court on July 10 last year sentenced 53-year-old Weng Jen-hsien (翁仁賢) to death after he was convicted of killing his parents, niece, nephew and nephew’s wife and his parents’ caregivers.
Weng set fire to his home in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭) on Feb. 7, 2016, after a family feud and the six died in the blaze, while four other relatives sustained injuries, the court said.
There are now 39 inmates on death row in Taiwan. The last execution before Weng’s was on Aug. 31, 2018.
It was Taiwan’s second execution since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party took office in 2016.
Prior to that, in the eight years former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was in office, 33 death row inmates were executed.
Separately on Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced four men and a woman to life in prison for the rape and murder of a schoolgirl in May 2015.
The girl, a junior-high school student from Hsinchu County surnamed Chiu (邱), reportedly had a verbal dispute with a 27-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃).
Furious about the way Huang was treated, her boyfriend, surnamed Lin (林), led three other men in abducting 14-year-old Chiu.
They took her from an Internet cafe to a riverside park, where they raped her and left.
Two of the men later returned to the site and found the girl dead. They subsequently notified the other three and burned Chiu’s body.
Lin had twice been given the death penalty before the High Court ruled that the five be handed life sentences.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the High Court decision.
Wednesday’s ruling is final.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS