The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a life sentence for a man found guilty of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death and sexually assaulting her as she lay dying, in a case that dates back more than six years.
The sentence cannot be appealed, the Supreme Court said in its ruling against Chang Yen-wen (張彥文), 35, who was convicted of murder and other felonies when the Taipei District Court first heard the case in November 2016.
The Supreme Court ruling said that Chang and the 22-year-old woman, surnamed Lin (林), met online and began dating, but a few months later she told him they should give each other some space.
In September 2014, they went on a trip to Japan, but Chang was not happy with the distance she maintained between them, and he began to suspect that she was seeing someone else, court documents showed.
During the trip, Chang sexually assaulted Lin twice, and they broke up after returning to Taiwan, the court heard.
On the morning of Sept. 22, 2014, Chang stopped Lin outside her residence and begged her to make up with him, but when she did not respond, he stabbed her 47 times and sexually assaulted her, according to court documents.
Chang, a graduate of National Taiwan University, was arrested after eyewitnesses called police.
On Jan. 15, 2016, the Taipei District Court sentenced Chang to life imprisonment, saying the death sentence was not warranted because he had confessed to the crime and was capable of rehabilitation.
Taipei prosecutors who had sought the death sentence appealed the ruling, and on April 11, 2017, the Taiwan High Court sentenced Chang to 15 years for murder, and another six years and six months for sexual assault and desecration of a corpse, with the latter sentence not subject to appeal.
In its ruling, the High Court said it took into consideration Chang’s remorse over his actions and his willingness to compensate the victim’s family. Prosecutors again appealed, and the Supreme Court sent the case back to the High Court, asking for a review of the homicide sentence.
On June 17, 2020, the High Court sentenced Chang to life imprisonment, saying that he had committed a brutal murder and that monetary compensation could not heal the pain of the victim’s family.
The case was appealed again in the Supreme Court, which upheld the life sentence in the final ruling.
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