The Taiwan High Court yesterday overturned Wang Ping-hua’s (王秉華) death sentence for fatally stabbing a man and sentenced him to life in prison.
The ruling can be appealed.
The Taipei District Court on May 26 last year sentenced Wang to death for the murder of a man surnamed Lin (林), who at the time of the murder was sitting on his motorcycle waiting for his sister to finish work.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
After the murder, Wang’s then-wife notified authorities and convinced her husband to turn himself in.
High Court spokeswoman Lien Yu-chun (連育群) said that the district court had ruled that Wang’s surrender had been on the behest of his wife, and was therefore passive and not voluntary.
As a result, Wang did not qualify for a lighter sentence, as the statute of self-surrender did not apply to his actions.
However, Lien said the interpretation was erroneous, as the law is not prejudiced against the motives for self-surrender.
Wang’s claims of non-lethal intent and self-claimed psychological issues were also beside the point, as defendants qualify for lighter sentences when they turn themselves in, Lien said.
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