The Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal from death row prisoner Cheng Wu-sung (鄭武松) to suspend his execution.
In September last year, the Constitutional Court issued Constitutional Judgement No. 8, which said that although the death penalty is constitutional, it should only be applied in “exceptional cases.”
This led to Cheng filing for a retrial on the grounds that he could be rehabilitated.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
The constitutional judgement allows for the death penalty only for the “most serious” of premeditated crimes and if the case followed the strictest requirements of due process.
The judgement does not allow for the death penalty in cases where the verdict was not unanimous, where the offender did not have a lawyer present during their final appeal and where the offender has a history of mental disorders or disabilities.
Following the judgement, death row prisoners or the head prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office could petition for extraordinary appeals.
There are 36 prisoners on death row, including Cheng, who was sentenced for the 2005 murder of his ex-wife and her boss.
At one point, he wrote a letter to the Ministry of Justice requesting an earlier execution date.
Chen’s filing said that under the new constitutional judgement, his original sentencing should have established the factors that made his case meet the threshold for “most serious” of premeditated crimes to justify the death penalty.
Furthermore, the court did not sufficiently prove that he could not be rehabilitated, his filing said.
The High Court’s Kaohsiung branch did not find sufficient evidence in Chen’s filing to meet the requirements for a retrial and rejected his request.
The Supreme Court upheld the ruling.
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan is to extend its visa-waiver program for Philippine passport holders for another year, starting on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Friday. Lin made the announcement during a reception in Taipei marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine independence and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The decision reflected Taiwan’s commitment to deepening exchanges with the Philippines, the statement cited Lin as saying, adding that it was a key partner under the New Southbound Policy launched in 2016. Lin also expressed hope
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
RSS