A man who was charged with the murder of his wife, mother-in-law, and stepson in New Taipei City last year was sentenced to death yesterday by a court panel that included six citizen judges, the New Taipei District Court said.
It was the first time that a death sentence was imposed by citizen judges since Taiwan implemented a lay judge system on Jan. 1, 2023.
In the ruling, the court said that the 24-year-old man, surnamed Chang (張), killed his 30-year-old wife around midnight on April 30 by suffocating her with a pillow while she was asleep.
Photo: Chen Wei-tzu, Taipei Times
On May 2, Chang strangled his 69-year-old mother-in-law and his three-year-old stepson to death and wrapped the bodies, along with that of his wife, in a bedsheet, the ruling said.
Chang then stole his mother-in-law’s bank cards and valuables from her safety deposit box, withdrew funds from her bank account and used some of the money to upgrade his membership on a dating Web site and buy points on a gambling site, the court said.
After six days, Chang fled to Taichung with his wife’s dog and checked into a hotel, using his father’s name, the court said.
His sister-in-law, who had been trying for days to contact her family, found the three dead bodies after she hired a locksmith to break into their home in Sanchong District (三重), the court said.
Chang was arrested on May 12 in Taichung and was indicted on Wednesday last week on charges of theft and the murder of the three people, the court said.
It said the evidence showed that there had been no forced entry to the home prior to the three deaths, and the suspect had fled and gone into hiding.
Chang’s trial lasted six days, after which the panel of three career judges and six citizen judges issued a guilty verdict yesterday and sentenced him to death — a ruling that can still be appealed.
During a psychological evaluation, Chang showed no remorse for the brutal killings, the district court said.
He also threatened to kill his sister-in-law and his wife’s ex-boyfriend, the court said.
The Citizen Judges Act (國民法官法) mandates the participation of ordinary citizens in criminal trials, in concert with professional judges, to hand down verdicts.
According to the act, criminal cases warranting a prison term of at least 10 years, or premeditated crimes that result in death, are to be reviewed by a collegiate bench comprising three career judges and six citizen judges.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS