President Ma Ying-jeou said Tuesday Taiwan should first reduce the number of death sentences in Taiwan as a means of gradually phasing out the practice in a bid to stem controversy over the issue.
Speaking to representatives of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty at the Presidential Office, Ma described abrogating the death penalty as "a world trend" but said the government still needs to stick to the principle of rule by law and carry out the executions of death row inmates until the practice is legally eliminated.
Saying that the abolition of capital punishment cannot be achieved overnight, Ma contended that the government's policy is moving in that direction, in line with two non-binding U.N. conventions the government ratified last year.
Citing the results of a recent public opinion poll on the death penalty, he pointed out that a majority of Taiwan's people remain strongly opposed to its abolition -- a stance that has not changed since 1993, when a similar survey was carried out.
"At present, all the government can do is to reduce the practice of the death penalty while raising the threshold for parole for inmates sentenced to life in prison," the president explained.
"I hope we can begin building consensus on the controversial issue starting from there," he added.
The death penalty dispute came back to the forefront in late March, when then-Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng was forced to step down from the post after making it clear that she would not sign any execution orders for prisoners on death row, as an informal moratorium on the death penalty appeared to be in place.
Her successor, Tseng Yung-fu, swiftly decided to carry out four executions in April -- the first in Taiwan in five years -- provoking heated debate among those for and against capital punishment and prompting the alliance to step up the pace of its efforts to have the sentences of the remaining 40 death row inmates commuted to life in prison.
Source: Focus Taiwan, June 15, 2010
MOJ has no timetable for execution of death row inmates
There is no set timetable for the execution of the 40 prisoners on death row, Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu reiterated Tuesday in response to media questions on the government's next move following its April 30 execution of four condemned convicts.
"It is too early to talk about the issue now, as prosecutors are still screening the list before they hand it over to an ad hoc committee under the Justice Ministry that will decide what to do next," Tseng said in response to reporters' questions.
"I have no set timetable for the execution of the 40 prisoners on death row," he said after a visit to Sijhih, Taipei County to see Wu Tong-yen, whose parents were murdered in front of him in 1991 when he was 6 years old.
Wu now suffers from muscular dystrophy and is on a respirator.
The 4 executions in April were the 1st in Taiwan in 5 years, as an informal moratorium on the death penalty appeared to be in place. However, the issue came to the forefront in March when then Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng said publicly that she would not sign any execution orders for prisoners on death row.
Wang was later forced to resign amid public outcry over her statement and four prisoners were executed within weeks of the new minister taking office.
The Legislative Yuan also took steps to pass a law that would speed up the process of criminal trials and limit the prosecution of criminal cases in the courts to no more than 8 years.
Tseng said his ministry will adhere to the regulations in processing cases involving capital punishment.
Some senior prosecutors have blamed the Supreme Court for the length of time criminals trials often take in Taiwan, accusing it of frequently invalidating the rulings of lower courts on the basis of minor technical details.
Source: Focus Taiwan, June 15, 2010
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