The juvenile court of the New Taipei City District Court yesterday sentenced male and female students involved in a fatal school stabbing of a classmate in December last year to nine and eight years in prison respectively.
The court said the sentences were lower than those that would be handed down to adult offenders in line with Article 18 of the Criminal Code, which states that “punishment may be reduced” for offenders aged 14 to 18.
Under Article 271 of the Criminal Code, “a person who takes the life of another shall be sentenced to death or life imprisonment or imprisonment for not less than 10 years.”
Photo: Chen Wei-tzu, Taipei Times
The defendants had already demonstrated remorse for their “mistake” and “inappropriate words and actions,” but “still need time to study and adjust,” the court said.
The ruling can be appealed.
On Dec. 25 last year during a noon break at an unnamed New Taipei City junior high school, the female student reportedly had an argument with a ninth-grader identified by his surname Yang (楊).
She later returned with another male student who stabbed Yang in the neck and chest several times with a switchblade after the female student allegedly urged him to “kill” Yang during an ensuing fight.
Yang was taken to Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) where he died the following evening.
After an initial investigation, prosecutors on May 9 charged the juveniles on suspicion of homicide, and they were detained and held incommunicado.
The case was heavily covered in the news, with many shocked by the killing of a student on school premises.
The father of the male defendant spoke to reporters after the sentencing, saying that his son “should accept the punishment given to him.”
However, in a statement released by the victim’s family criticizing the “leniency” of the court’s ruling, Yang’s father vowed to appeal the decision and said that “our laws have become a protective umbrella for criminals.”
The defendants, who were in junior high at the time of the incident, as well as the school in which the incident occurred, cannot be identified by name in the media due to child protection laws.
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