The death penalty was upheld yesterday for a man convicted of raping and killing a Malaysian university student in 2020, the first such sentencing since the Constitutional Court’s ruling last year that the death penalty should only be used in the most extreme cases.
The ruling was revisited by the High Court’s Kaohsiung branch after aspects of its previous verdict were overturned by the Supreme Court.
However, the High Court again ruled that Liang Yu-chih (梁育誌) would be sentenced to death, as factors in his crime did not fall below the conditions required by the Constitutional Court ruling in September last year.
Photo: CNA
The case was referred for appeal as required by law.
There are three reasons for the latest ruling, said Lee Shu-hui (李淑惠), administrative head of the Kaohsiung branch.
First, the crime was premeditated and a lot of time was spent planning it, Lee said.
Second, the cruelty and maliciousness of the crime meet the criteria of the “most serious circumstances” as required by the Constitutional Court ruling, she said.
Third, Liang found himself in financial hardship and had stated he wanted to “experience something thrilling so he would die with no regrets,” she added.
The High Court found that Liang had an antisocial personality disorder that was unresponsive to treatment, so was a high risk of reoffending, especially sexual assault, making him unsuitable for rehabilitation, she said.
In the first and second trials, the Ciaotou District Court and the High Court sentenced Liang to death over charges including attempted forcible sexual intercourse, forcible sexual intercourse, robbery homicide, intentional homicide and abandonment of a body.
The Supreme Court overturned aspects of the second conviction, saying that the charge of abandoning a body was confirmed, but the sexual assault and murder charges should be retried.
Liang’s legal team argued that the killing was not intentional, while the Supreme Court cited insufficient investigation to prove that all aspects of the crime were premeditated.
The Supreme Court also requested that the risk of reoffending be reassessed.
The case dates back to Oct. 28, 2020, when Liang attacked a Malaysian student walking alone through an underpass, court documents from the most recent trial showed.
He used a rope to capture her around the neck before raping her, strangling her to death and dumping her body on Dagangshan (大崗山) in Kaohsiung’s Alian District (阿蓮), the documents showed.
Liang, who is from Alian, found the dimly lit area a 10-minute drive from his house in Tainan’s Guiren District (歸仁), where students from Chang Jung Christian University often passed by, the documents showed.
Liang used the rope to strangle the woman, tying it in such a way that required both hands and considerable strength, before applying a lot of force, crushing her jugular, carotid artery and trachea, and damaging her vocal cords, all of which constitutes intentional murder with significant force, they showed.
Liang had inserted an unknown cylindrical object into the woman’s vagina, which forced air into her uterus causing an embolism in her heart and severe bleeding in her vagina and bladder, actions that were extreme and malicious, and justified the death sentence, they showed.
Additional reporting by CNA
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