The Supreme Court has rejected Lu Wen-sheng’s (呂文昇) request for a retrial, ruling that the Taichung Branch of the High Court’s decision to dismiss the petition by the death row inmate was procedurally sound and legally valid.
The Taichung court earlier ruled that Lu’s request should have been filed with the Supreme Court, because his case had already gone through a third trial.
The Taichung court also ruled that Lu failed to provide any new evidence that would meet the criteria for a retrial, such as evidence that his sentencing did not consider key factors related to the death penalty.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
Lu had based his request on Constitutional Judgement No. 8, issued on Sept. 20 last year, which says that the death penalty is conditionally constitutional.
Lu had argued that the death penalty ruling did not fully evaluate whether his actions met the threshold of “most serious crimes” and that it failed to consider his potential for rehabilitation, reform or reintegration into society.
Lu in 2006 was sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of an elderly couple in Taichung.
Another defendant in the case, Wu Ching-lu (吳慶陸), died in prison in 2019.
There are 36 prisoners on death row in Taiwan.
Constitutional Judgement No. 8 permits extraordinary appeals in death penalty cases under specific conditions, such as when the crime does not meet the “most serious” standard, the third-instance trial lacked a defense attorney or oral arguments, or the death sentence was not unanimously decided.
The judgement also allows defendants to seek prosecutor-general permission to file an extraordinary appeal.
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