An alliance opposing capital punishment said Tuesday that death row convicts should not be executed until a review on the death penalty has been completed, amid reports that another execution could take place this month following an 11-month hiatus.
Lin Hsin-yi, executive director of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, noted that Taiwan signed 2 United Nations human rights covenants -- the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights -- in 2009.
"According to the enforcement rules of the two covenants, the government should complete a review within two years to decide if capital punishment violates human rights. We think executions should not be conducted before the completion of the review," Lin said.
The alliance also issued a statement later that day pointing out that the 2 U.N. covenants clearly stipulate that death row inmates should have the right to ask for amnesty or commutation.
In addition, the United Nations Human Rights Council has asked all signatories not to execute convicts on death row before related procedures concerning requests for amnesty have been completed, the alliance added.
It pointed out that the wrongful execution of an air force private a decade ago has triggered hot debate in the last few weeks on the death penalty.
President Ma Ying-jeou has also expressed the hope that executions should be cut in stages, the alliance said, urging the Ma administration not to execute convicts "rashly and immediately" before making the law more complete and comprehensive.
Earlier in the day, Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu said that "there is a chance (that an execution could be carried out) this month."
But he also said his ministry is taking a cautious approach on carrying out executions and will only execute a death row inmate if he or she has given up or exhausted all legal avenues, such as extraordinary appeals, retrials and constitutional interpretations.
According to Justice Ministry statistics, there are currently 45 death row inmates in Taiwan.
The last executions in the country were carried out April 30 last year, when 4 death row inmates were executed, the 1st since 2005.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel, March 1, 2011
Minister of justice hints at renewal of prisoner executions
Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu yesterday said an 11-month hiatus in executions could end as early as this month, a move certain to re-ignite debate over the death penalty.
“There is a chance [a death sentence could be carried out] this month,” Tseng said during a hearing at the legislature after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng expressed concern over the execution process.
Tseng said the ministry had taken a cautious approach to carrying out the death penalty and would only execute a death row inmate if he or she had exhausted all legal avenues for an appeal, such as filing an extraordinary appeal, a retrial and asking for a constitutional interpretation.
Wu said that if inmates insisted on dying and were not granted their request, that would also constitute a form of torture infringing their human rights.
The death penalty was last carried out on April 30 last year, when 4 inmates were executed, the 1st since 2005.
The moratorium on executions drew attention early last year when then-minister of justice Wang Ching-feng, a death penalty opponent, insisted on stays of execution. Wang resigned on March 11 following an outcry from victims of violent crime and their families.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday they opposed the death penalty, pointing to the execution in 1997 of air force private Chiang Kuo-ching, who was later exonerated of the crime for which he was executed by DNA and forensic evidence.
Ministry of National Defense officials apologized in January for executing Chiang for the sexual abuse and murder of a 5-year-old girl in 1996.
“In a case like this, by the time the government found out that it had done something wrong — it was already too late,” DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling said. “This is why we need a national dialogue before any more executions are carried out.”
Kuan said that the death penalty failed to get to the root of the problem and had a negative effect on Taiwan’s image.
“They [the government] have a right to do so of course, as we have not revised our laws yet, but is it necessary [President] Ma Ying-jeou, a Harvard law graduate, should be as aware of this as anyone,” Kuan said.
The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty said death row convicts should not be executed until a review on the death penalty has been completed.
Source: Taipei Times, March 1, 2011
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