Constitutional Court justice and Judicial Yuan president nominee Tsai Chiu-ming (蔡秋明) today expressed support for maintaining the death penalty and judicial reform.
Tsai, who serves as Taiwan High Prosecutors' Office chief prosecutor, was speaking at a Legislative Yuan review of his nomination by President William Lai (賴清德).
Asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) about ending the death penalty, Tsai said that he did not support its abolition.
Photo: Wang Yi-song, Taipei Times
He supports Constitutional Judgement No. 8, he said.
The judgement in September last year saw the Constitutional Court determine that capital punishment is constitutional, but should be limited to “exceptional” cases.
Earlier this year, the KMT proposed a referendum opposing the death penalty’s abolition. In May, the Legislative Yuan voted to approve the referendum, but it could not be put to a national vote as it had missed the submission deadline.
Hsu asked whether Constitutional Judgement No. 8 was a “de facto” abolition of the death penalty.
Tsai did not go as far as to agree, but said that it did make issuing such sentences difficult.
Hsu then asked Tsai about the court’s judgement requiring death penalty verdicts to be unanimous and if it was based on precedent.
In his experience, such verdicts were already generally reached unanimously, although he had no statistics on hand, Tsai said.
As the case has already been decided, it can only be reheard according to the requirements laid out in Article 42 of the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), Tsai added.
Article 42 says that a Constitutional Court judgement can only be reconsidered if the “amendment of the Constitution or relevant laws or material changes in social circumstances necessitates” it.
Tsai also spoke about his goal of reforming the judiciary.
The country’s judiciary has a heavy workload and is lacking public confidence, Tsai said, adding that the heavy workload on judges reduces trial efficiency and could also affect the quality of rulings.
He would seek to increase the judicial workforce and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice to reduce caseloads by decriminalizing less serious offenses and encouraging alternative resolution mechanisms during investigation, Tsai said.
To improve the public’s trust in the judiciary, he would publish transparent sentencing guidelines and let the people engage with the process, he said.
His reform efforts would also focus on protecting victim rights, Tsai added.
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