The 37 death row prisoners in Taiwan who have exhausted their appeals may petition for extraordinary appeals to alter their sentencing following a ruling by the Constitutional Court on Friday that stated the death penalty was constitutional, but only for “exceptional” cases.
In a case brought by the 37 prisoners, the Constitutional Court ruled that the death penalty was constitutional only for “the most serious” premeditated murders and premeditated crimes resulting in death.
The ruling also prohibits the death sentence for people with a mental condition, reversing the current practice which allows only those who can prove that their mental conditions had affected their judgment when they committed their crimes to receive reduced sentences.
Photo: CNA
Any current laws incompatible with the ruling must be amended within two years, the court said.
At a news conference following the ruling, Yang Hao-ching (楊皓清), the court’s director-general, said while the death row prisoners could petition for extraordinary appeals based on Friday’s ruling, it was up to the head prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to decide whether to accept their petitions.
Even if the head prosecutor files for extraordinary appeals on their behalf, the Supreme Court still has to decide whether to review such appeals, he added.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in a press release issued later on Friday said it would file extraordinary appeals for prisoners Chen Yi-lung (陳憶隆) and Huang Chun-chi (黃春棋) because the laws underlying their death sentences were ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
The two were given the death penalty more than two decades ago over the kidnapping and murder of a businessman surnamed Huang (黃) in 1995.
As for the remaining 35 prisoners, the office said it would examine each of their cases before determining its next step.
The Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) says that the head prosecutor can also file for an extraordinary appeal — a special procedure intended to correct “improper judgments” — if a punishment imposed on an individual is considered to be “against the law.”
The Supreme Court, upon reviewing an extraordinary appeal for a case, can revoke parts or all of the judgments and either remit the case to the original court for re-examination or issue a new ruling, according to the extraordinary appeal system.
NATURE TAKES ITS COURSE: The agency’s head said he felt a sense of loss watching red-banded snakes eat the babies, as they had decided on non-intervention The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday released a documentary on a hundred-pace viper that had incubated 16 eggs, all of which hatched, but only a baby viper escaped after they were attacked by red-banded snakes. The agency’s Taichung branch last year launched the viper reproduction monitoring project soon after forest rangers Lin Chun-yu (林俊佑) and Chou Chia-cheng (周家成) spotted a pregnant hundred-pace viper in a grass-covered burrow near a parking lot in Tbulan Village (松鶴部落). The Atayal village, in Taichung’s Heping District (和平), is headed by Ecyang Yapu, who was positive about the project and assisted in access control and power
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said that it had deployed vessels to “monitor” Chinese ships operating in waters off the east coast. The CGA said it dispatched vessels in response to a China Coast Guard announcement that it had carried out another “routine law-enforcement patrol” in waters off the east coast. “The CGA firmly rejects China’s cognitive warfare campaign of ‘law enforcement in name, jurisdictional expansion in practice,’” it said on X. As of 11am yesterday, two China Coast Guard ships were “loitering and drifting” about 105 nautical miles (195km) and 74 nautical miles east of Green Island (綠島) respectively, it said. It
A sharp rise in compensation to be paid by air force officers who leave before completing their required service could indicate an increase in pilots leaving the military early, an analyst said on Friday, warning that the trend could worsen a shortage of experienced personnel. Chieh Chung (揭仲), a researcher at the Association for Strategic Foresight, issued the warning even though the number of volunteer military personnel is expected to increase next year. The planned headcount for volunteer military personnel, covering officers, noncommissioned officers (NCO) and enlisted soldiers, is 158,223 for next year, up 4,258 from 153,965 this year, Chieh said. The increase
Potential improvements to munitions used by China’s long-range rocket-artillery units could extend their range to cover the entire Miyako Strait, which might give the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) the ability to secure the strategic waterway, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a report. The PLA’s long-range rocket-artillery units deployed along the Taiwan Strait are concentrated along the coast of Fujian Province, including Changle, Pingtan and Shishi, the quarterly report on China said. The artillery brigades of the PLA’s 71st, 72nd and 73rd group armies have been deployed, with preparations for potential battlefield operations under way since August 2022, the report
RSS