A woman who on Feb. 13 killed her son and daughter before attempting suicide was on Wednesday sentenced to death by the New Taipei City District Court. The verdict described her actions as “extremely cruel and cold-blooded.”
The 30-year-old woman surnamed Wu (吳) raised an eight-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son on her own after a divorce.
After an argument with her brother and his wife, Wu took her children to a motel in New Taipei City’s Wugu District (五股), where she attempted to suffocate the children with pillows, but failed as they fought back, the court filing said.
Two days later, Wu drugged her children with sleeping pills and strangled them to death, it said.
She then wrote a text message to the children’s father, saying: “I’m gone. I’m going to be with the kids, or they will feel lonely,” the filing said.
Wu’s ex-husband rushed to the motel, where he found his children dead and Wu lethargic after taking sleeping pills, anti-depressants and alcohol.
Wu was taken to hospital and treated.
During the trial, Wu confessed to committing the murders, saying that she felt overwhelmed with the burden of caring for two children on her own.
“These seven years, people looked down on me. I was left alone with the pressure and was not able to find a steady job,” the filing cites her as saying. “I have been caring for them 24 hours a day, without any freedom for myself.”
In the verdict, the court said that Wu committed the “extremely cruel and cold-blooded” murders because of stress and dissatisfaction with her personal circumstances, and failed to show remorse for her crimes.
Despite acknowledging the ongoing debate over capital punishment in Taiwan, the court said that it had the responsibility to uphold the “inherent right to life” guaranteed to every child by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In response to the ruling, Wu’s defense lawyer Liao Hui-fang (廖蕙芳) on Thursday wrote on Facebook that the court did not consider mitigating factors and that it imposed the death penalty out of deference to public opinion.
The Awakening Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to gender equality, in a statement called on the government to improve social welfare services to prevent similar tragedies.
The verdict can be appealed.
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