The presidential candidates discussed capital punishment during Saturday’s televised debate after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) brought it up in a question he put to the other two candidates.
In one of the few questions the candidates could put to each other that was issue-based, Hou openly expressed his opposition to abolishing capital punishment.
In its eight years of governance, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has only executed two death row inmates, which was tantamount to abolishing the death penalty, Hou said.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Photojournalist Society
He asked DPP presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and Taiwan People’s Party chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to state their position on the issue.
Lai described capital punishment as a sensitive issue in any country, and that abolishing it required a high degree of public support.
Taiwan has written the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into domestic law, and while they do not require abolishing the death penalty, they do call for discretion in deciding whether to carry out executions, Lai said.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights does not mention the death penalty.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights says it “may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law” and can only be carried out “pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court.”
Referring to polls cited by Hou that show that 80 percent support the death penalty in Taiwan, Lai said he understood people’s desire to retain the death penalty.
Lai said that full-fledged social policies could reduce the need for a strict criminal justice system, but concluded that the need for the death penalty was an issue that required further discussion.
Ko, meanwhile, argued that popular support in Taiwan for the death penalty stems from the practice being deeply ingrained in Chinese societies and cultures since the Han dynasty.
Former Taipei mayor compared Taiwanese backing for capital punishment to Americans’ support for their right to possess guns, which has prevented the death penalty from being abolished despite attempts to do so.
He said that given the global trend away from capital punishment, the only compromise he could think of was that people who have been given a life sentence must not be paroled, as allowing people who have received a life sentence to be paroled is a “source of public criticism.”
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS